BALTIMORE (Stockpickr) -- Put down the 10-K filings and the stock screeners. It's time to take a break from the traditional methods of generating investment ideas. Instead, let the crowd do it for you.
From hedge funds to individual investors, scores of market participants are turning to social media to figure out which stocks are worth watching. It's a concept that's known as "crowdsourcing," and it uses the masses to identify emerging trends in the market.
Crowdsourcing has long been a popular tool for the advertising industry, but it also makes a lot of sense as an investment tool. After all, the market is completely driven by the supply and demand, so it can be valuable to see what names are trending among the crowd.
While some fund managers are already trying to leverage social media resources like Twitter to find algorithmic trading opportunities, for most investors, crowdsourcing works best as a starting point for investors who want a starting point in their analysis. Today, we'll leverage the power of the crowd to take a look at some of the most active stocks on the market today.
Hot Oil Companies To Own For 2015: Natus Medical Incorporated(BABY)
Natus Medical Incorporated provides neurodiagnostic and newborn care products worldwide. The company offers healthcare products used for the screening, detection, treatment, monitoring, and tracking of common medical ailments in newborn care, hearing impairment, neurological dysfunction, epilepsy, sleep disorders, and balance and mobility disorders. Its product offerings include neurodiagnostic systems for audiology, neurology, polysomnography, and neonatology; newborn care products, such as hearing screening systems, phototherapy devices for the treatment of newborn jaundice, head-cooling products for the treatment of brain injury in newborns, and incubators to control the newborn?s environment; and software systems for managing and tracking disorders and diseases. The company provides newborn hearing screening product lines consisting of the ALGO, ABaer, AuDX, and Echo-Screen newborn hearing screeners; and hearing screening supply products that are used with newborn hea ring screening devices. It also offers diagnostic hearing assessment product lines, which include the Navigator Pro system, the Scout sport portable diagnostic device, and the AuDX PRO; and diagnostic hearing supply products. In addition, the company provides monitoring systems, balance and mobility products, newborn brain injury diagnostic products, thermoregulation products, and jaundice management products. Further, it offers photometers, radiometers, patient warming lamps, neonatal heatshields, pediatric scales, blanket warming cabinets, exam lights, oxygen hoods, restraining boards, and newborn circumstraints; neonatal noise attenuators, phototherapy eye masks, and x-ray shields for reproductive organs; and newborn screening data management products. The company serves hospitals, clinics, laboratories, physicians, nurses, audiologists, and governmental agencies. Natus Medical Incorporated was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in San Carlos, California.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Sean Williams]
We could always blame Europe for the shortfall; I mean everyone else is doing it, right? Just yesterday, niche diagnostic and device maker for infants and newborns Natus Medical (NASDAQ: BABY ) warned that its revenue would be short of the Street's estimates because of tepid European demand for its products. Even having products with little competition in a niche category (infants and newborns) wasn't enough to save Natus Medical; could that be the reason Intuitive is faltering?
- [By Sean Williams]
What: Shares of Natus Medical (NASDAQ: BABY ) , a neurodiagnostic and medical device company specializing in newborn and infant care, sank as much as 15% after the company announced disappointing preliminary revenue figures for the second quarter.
5 Best Healthcare Technology Stocks To Own For 2014: S&P GSCI(GD)
General Dynamics Corporation, an aerospace and defense company, provides business aviation; combat vehicles, weapons systems, and munitions; military and commercial shipbuilding; and communications and information technology products and services worldwide. Its Aerospace group designs, manufactures, and outfits various large and mid-cabin business-jet aircraft; provides maintenance, repair work, fixed-based operations, and aircraft management services; and performs aircraft completions for aircraft. The company?s Combat Systems group offers tracked and wheeled military vehicles, weapons systems, and munitions. Its product lines include wheeled combat and tactical vehicles; battle tanks and infantry vehicles; munitions and propellant; rockets and gun systems; and axle and drivetrain components and aftermarket parts. This group also manufactures and supplies engineered axles, suspensions, and brakes for heavy-load vehicles for military and commercial customers. The company Advisors' Opinion:
- [By Victor Selva]
General Dynamics Corp. (GD) is an aerospace and defense company. It has four business groups: Aerospace, Combat Systems, Marine Systems and Information Systems and Technology. The company�� key customer is the U.S. government. The company also has business with non-U.S. governments and corporate and individual buyers of business aircraft.
- [By Chad Tracy]
Let's take a look at three stocks in the aerospace and defense sector that look more attractive at today's prices.
General Dynamics (NYSE: GD) General Dynamics is currently trading around $86 per share, which is close to its 52-week high of $87.85. Yet earnings support this valuation, and the company's forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio is only 11, compared with an industry average of 18. The current price to book value is 2.5. The company also carries very little debt, with a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.3.General Dynamics generates huge revenue through its contracts with the U.S. government. Its marine systems division owns three of the six submarine shipyards in the U.S. Long-term contracts with the U.S. government are estimated to be worth $78 billion for attack submarines and $140 billion for ballistic missile submarines.
- [By Katie Spence]
Who builds what
Both General Dynamics' (NYSE: GD ) Bath Iron Works shipbuilding company and Huntington Ingalls Industries' (NYSE: HII ) Ingalls Shipbuilding build the DDG 51 Aegis Destroyer, with the Navy typically buying ships from each builder. - [By Rich Smith]
Perhaps appropriately for an arms merchant, General Dynamics (NYSE: GD ) stock is exploding this week, up nearly 8.8% since reporting earnings Wednesday morning -- and up about twice as much as the gains o fellow defense contractor Boeing (NYSE: BA ) , which also reported Wednesday.
5 Best Healthcare Technology Stocks To Own For 2014: Vanguard Reit Etf (VNQ)
Vanguard REIT ETF (the Fund), formerly known as Vanguard REIT VIPERs, is an exchange-traded share class of Vanguard REIT Index Fund. The Fund seeks to provide a high level of income and moderate long-term capital appreciation by tracking the performance of an index that measures the performance of publicly traded equity real estate investment trusts (REITs). Vanguard REIT ETF employs a passive management or indexing investment approach designed to track the performance of the MSCI US REIT Index (the Index), an index of United States property trusts that covers about two-thirds of the value of the entire United States REIT market.
Vanguard REIT ETF normally invests approximately 98% of assets in stocks issued by equity REITs. The Fund invests in the stocks that make up the Index, and the remaining assets are allocated to cash investments.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Bill Stoller]
After a banner 2013, the overall market has had a challenging start to 2014. However, these four companies have been crushing it: Alexander Real Estate (NYSE: ARE ) , BioMed Realty Trust (NYSE: BMR ) , CommonWealth REIT (NYSE: CWH ) , and Sun Communities (NYSE: SUI ) early on in 2014 vs. the S&P 500. Their relative out-performance can also be seen when compared to the Vanguard REIT Index ETF (NYSEMKT: VNQ ) a good yardstick to measure sector performance.
- [By Dan Caplinger]
3. Real-estate investment trusts
Rate-sensitive REITs took another big hit over the week, with the Vanguard REIT ETF (NYSEMKT: VNQ ) dropping more than 5%. Leveraged mortgage REITs saw even worse losses, with Annaly Capital (NYSE: NLY ) falling more than 7% and American Capital Agency (NASDAQ: AGNC ) seeing 8% declines. - [By Dan Caplinger]
Keeping it simple
Some advisors will suggest that you're giving up big potential returns if you don't pick individual stocks. But a portfolio that relies on the broad-based ETFs Vanguard Total Stock Market (NYSEMKT: VTI ) , iShares Core Bond Market (NYSEMKT: AGG ) , Vanguard REIT (NYSEMKT: VNQ ) , or other similar ETFs from other fund companies will get you most of the way to the returns that you need in order to retire comfortably. These three ETFs are particularly useful because they come with low fees, but as long as the ETF you choose doesn't charge too much, there are plenty of strong options to pick from. Insurance coverage can be extremely difficult to understand, and the costs involved can be high. Sticking with basic insurance early on and later adding features as you become more familiar with the risks involved might not always be the least expensive solution to your insurance needs, as in some cases, the earlier you get coverage, the less it costs. Moreover, you won't always qualify to get insurance if some event occurs later in life that boosts your risk to the point at which insurance companies won't offer you coverage at all. But the wait-and-see strategy does have the benefit of preventing you from getting coverage that might well be obsolete or unnecessary by the time you seek to use it.
Even though retirement planning can get complicated in a hurry, the key to remember throughout much of your career is that it's impossible to plan for every contingency you'll face. As a result, the simpler way to handle planning for retirement is to address the threats that you can control while maintaining as much flexibility as possible to handle the threats you can't control -- or might not even be aware of. A few examples include:Admittedly, these simple solutions won't always take care of every contingency, and they can leave you vulnerable to certain risks that require advanced planning techniques. But
- [By John Udovich]
Small cap Biomed Realty Trust Inc (NYSE: BMR) is a real estate investment trust (REIT) offering an alternative way to gain exposure to the biotech or life sciences sector, meaning it might be worth taking a closer look at it along with a few benchmarks like the Vanguard REIT ETF (NYSEARCA: VNQ), iShares NASDAQ Biotechnology Index ETF (NASDAQ: IBB) and SPDR S&P Biotech ETF (NYSEARCA: XBI). Of course, it should be mentioned that REITs have had a rough ride lately�given all the ��apering��talk, but there is still a place for them in your portfolio with Biomed Realty Trust being one of the more unique offerings.
5 Best Healthcare Technology Stocks To Own For 2014: Atmel Corporation(ATML)
Atmel Corporation designs, develops, manufactures, and sells semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) products. The company?s Microcontrollers segment provides various proprietary and standard microcontrollers, such as Atmel?s capacitive touch products, including maXTouch and QTouch, AVR 8-bit and 32-bit products, ARM-based products, and Atmel?s 8051 8-bit products. Its Nonvolatile Memories segment offers serial interface electrically erasable programmable read-only memory and serial interface flash memory products; and parallel interface flash memories, as well as parallel interface electrically erasable programmable read-only memory and erasable programmable read-only memory devices. The company?s Radio Frequency and Automotive segment provides products designed for the automotive industry, including automobile electronics, networking and access systems, and engine, lighting, and entertainment components. This segment produces and sells wireless and wired devices for in dustrial, consumer, and automotive applications; and offers foundry services, which produce radio frequency products for the mobile telecommunications market. Its Application Specific Integrated Circuit segment provides custom application specific ICs designed to meet specialized single-customer requirements of high performance devices in a range of specific applications. This segment provides products that provide hardware security for embedded digital systems; and products with military and aerospace applications, as well as develops application specific standard products for space applications, power management, and secure crypto memory products. The company sells its products directly to original equipment manufacturers; and indirectly through a network of distributors. It has operations in the United States, Asia, Europe, South Africa, and Central and South America. Atmel Corporation was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in San Jose, California.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Srdjan Bejakovic]
In the first quarter, semiconductor maker Atmel� (NASDAQ: ATML ) recorded $337 million in revenue, $7 million above the upper end of its own guidance range. Additionally, management claims that 2014 will be a year of growth and increased profitability for the company, driven by continuing demand for microcontrollers and an improving picture in Atmel's touch business. What's lying behind the surprising revenue numbers, and can Atmel prosper in spite of increasing competition from such solid companies as Microchip Technologies� (NASDAQ: MCHP ) and Synaptics (NASDAQ: SYNA ) ?
- [By John Udovich]
If you are looking for a semiconductor stock that�� focus on an area that�� not so cyclical, mid cap microcontroller (MCU) stock Atmel Corporation (NASDAQ: ATML) could be a good choice���meaning its worth taking a closer look at the stock along with other�microcontroller�players like Microchip Technology Inc (NASDAQ: MCHP), STMicroelectronics N.V. (NYSE: STM) and Cypress Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ: CY). Microcontrollers are programmable and�embedded�chips that are increasingly�hidden inside a all sorts of products these days e.g. if you have an appliance�with a�LED or LCD screen and a keypad, it contains some kind of�microcontroller plus all new�automobiles contain at least one�and often several. I should mention that we have also recently added Atmel Corporation to our SmallCap Network Elite Opportunity (SCN EO) portfolio and we are down about 5.6% mostly due to the recent market volatility.
- [By Selena Maranjian]
Among holdings in which SAC Capital Advisors increased its stake was Atmel (NASDAQ: ATML ) �SAC reduced its stake in companies such as PNC Financial Services,�and Akamai Technologies. Atmel, which makes touchscreen controllers, is sitting near a 52-week high, despite posting shrinking revenue and earnings lately. The company is cutting costs to boost profit margins, and is optimistic, seeing�improving business conditions and a healthier backlog.
- [By GuruFocus]
George Soros (Trades, Portfolio) just reported his first quarter portfolio. He buys Citrix Systems Inc, Baker Hughes Inc, Comcast Corp, Spansion Inc, etc during the 3-months ended 03/31/2014, according to the most recent filings of his investment company, Soros Fund Management LLC. As of 03/31/2014, Soros Fund Management LLC owns 305 stocks with a total value of $10.1 billion. These are the details of the buys and sells.New Purchases: BHI, CODE, CTRP, CLI, AVB, COMM, CNQ, AGO, AUY, ATML, ASH, BXMT, CSTM, AEM, CMA, ARE, CHKP, AUQ, BEAV, CX, ADSK, AALCP, BLK, AIG, BIIB, ADEP, AMRI, ARWR, ATHX, BALT, BCRX, BEAT, CFX, CLFD, CUR, CODE,Added Positions: CTXS, CMCSA, CNP, ALTR, BRCD, CBS, CRM, CHTR, CCJ, CIEN, BIDU, ALLE, ABT, CDNS, ACT,Reduced Positions: AAPL, CCI, AMT, ABBV, AAL, BITA, AL, ANGI, ARIA, CBST, BA, BIRT, EXAR,Sold Out: C, BAC, CRI, AMZN, AGN, CF, BRCM, COTY, BMY, AMCX, CAR, A, ADBE, AFL,For the details of George Soros (Trades, Portfolio)'s stock buys and sells, go to http://www.gurufocus.com/StockBuy.php?GuruName=George+SorosThis is the sector weightings of his portfolio:Technology18.9%Energy14%Healthcare8.3%Consumer Defensive8.2%Communication Services8.1%Consumer Cyclical5.4%Industrials5.1%Basic Materials4.9%Financial Services2.5%Real Estate1.9%Utilities0.5%These are the top 5 holdings of George Soros (Trades, Portfolio)1. Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (TEVA) - 10,310,041 shares, 5.4% of the total portfolio. Shares added by 10.67%2. Herbalife Ltd (HLF) - 4,901,337 shares, 2.8% of the total portfolio. Shares added by 52.9%3. EQT Corp (EQT) - 2,573,814 shares, 2.5% of the total portfolio. Shares added by 3.27%4. Adecoagro SA (AGRO) - 25,915,076 shares, 2.1% of the total portfolio.5. Halliburton Co (HAL) - 3,596,353 shares, 2.1% of the total portfolio. Shares reduced by 20.73%New Purchase: Baker Hughes Inc (BHI)George Soros (Trades, Portfolio) initiated holdings in Baker Hughes Inc. His purchase prices were between $51.82 and $65.27, with an estimated
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