This May Be the Worst Quarter in Retail History

In my 15 years of investing I've seen some earnings report doozies in the retail sector. The dot-com collapse and the credit crisis kept investors hiding under their bed sheets long enough to create some pretty hideous year-over-year comparisons. However, the figures that struggling retailer J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP  ) reported last night were nothing short of the most atrocious quarter ever�to grace the retail sector.

Let's face it: No one expected a miracle. Everyone was just sort of hoping that Penney's would report about a 20% drop in same-store sales and we'd move on with the ongoing turnaround plan. What actually happened was that Halloween came early.

For the quarter, Penney's total revenue plummeted 28.4% to $3.88 billion from the year-ago period as its total loss ballooned more than 600% to $552 million. Internet sales tumbled a horrific 34.4% and same-store sales, which exclude the effects of newly opened and closed stores, dropped a staggering 31.7%, or 560 basis points worse than Wall Street had anticipated. Furthermore, same-store sales figures have gotten progressively worse with each passing quarter:

Quarter	Q1 2012	Q2 2012	Q3 2012	Q4 2012
Same-Store Sales %	(19%)	(21.7%)	(26.1%)	(31.7%)

Source: Associated Press.�

I've been pondering these figures since Penney's released its report after the bell, and I can't honestly recall any retailer with as serious a regression in same-store sales figures as what Penney's reported last night. The worst comparable performance I could find was teen retailer American Apparel,�which saw same-store sales declines of 20% on a constant currency basis during the height of the recession in August 2009. I'll give American Apparel some leeway given the market conditions at the time, but its share price still hasn't rebounded after four years of a slowly improving economy. Could that signal that Penney's fate will be similar?

Penney's CEO Ron Johnson did his best to admit his mistakes, and noted that the company plans to bring back about 100 sales a year in order to drive traffic back into its stores. While I've been a Ron Johnson supporter up until now, I can't help but point out how silly he sounded when backtracking on his comments with analysts in the conference call: "The customer will dictate the timing [of the mini-shop rollout]." It's been quite evident up until now that the customer has had little say in dictating the direction Penney's would head next, so to hear Johnson backpedaling has me concerned that Penney's management is as lost as it's ever been.

One pending catalyst that is hovering on the horizon is the brouhaha between it and Macy's (NYSE: M  ) in a New York courtroom over the rights to sell merchandise from Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (NYSE: MSO  ) . According to Macy's, it established an exclusive pact with Martha Stewart in 2007 that, it claims, extends to 2018 and should preclude Penney's from selling Martha Stewart products in its stores. Penney's, on the other hand, asserts it has the right to sell Martha Stewart's products in its stores and plans to open up Martha Stewart mini-shops within many of its retail locations. Not to mention that Penney's holds a 16.6% stake in Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. Martha Stewart herself may be unpopular, but her products still drive traffic like nobody's business, so this situation bears watching.

But even if Penney's retains the right to sell Martha Stewart's merchandise, will it matter? Penney's is losing market share to everyone --�and I mean everyone! Kohl's (NYSE: KSS  ) , which has been stuck in quite the rut as it's remodeled many of its stores and revamped its pricing strategy, lowered its fourth-quarter outlook in January, but not before reporting a 3.4% rise in same-store sales in December. I'll give you three guesses as to where I suspect that boost came from, and the first two don't count.

It remains to be seen if Penney's backpedaling can restore the sales it's lost through the return of sale events or if those customers have permanently transferred their shopping elsewhere. What I can�say for certain is that Penney's can't absorb another year of nearly $1 billion in cumulative losses. If we're staring down another 25%-plus same-store sales flub next quarter, we may be saying "au revoir" to JCP quicker than anyone had expected.

Is a turnaround in the cards?
To read more on the struggling retailer, claim a copy of The Motley Fool's�comprehensive report. Learn everything you need to know about JCP's turnaround -- or lack thereof -- and as a bonus, you'll receive a full year of expert guidance and updates as key news develops. Simply�click here now�for instant access.

Financial stocks flat ahead of Barclays results

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) � Financial stocks rose modestly on Monday, as investors eyed the G-20 finance minister meeting later this week.

Bank of America BAC �rose nearly 1% while Citigroup Inc. C gained�just over 1%. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. JPM �and Morgan Stanley MS were flat.

The Financial Select Spector SPDR FundXLF , which tracks financial stocks in the S&P 500, moved up by 0.43% and is up more than 14% for the year.

Nasdaq OMX Group NDAQ �had talks with The Carlyle Group CG �about a potential buyout of the exchange operator. The talks, which have since been halted, were in the very early stages when the private-equity firm realized it wasn�t going to be able to reach agreement with the exchange on price and the discussions broke down, a person familiar with the situation told MarketWatch.

The talks between the two firms happened in the past month, according to the person familiar with the situation. Just weeks earlier, exchange rival NYSE Euronext NYX announced an $8.2 billion deal to merge with IntercontinentalExchange Inc. ICE �

Nasdaq and The Carlyle Group had no comment. Nasdaq shares were up nearly 5% on Monday. The talks were first reported on Fox Business Network.

Moody�s Corp. MCO �shares were up 5% and shares in McGraw-Hill Cos. MHP , which owns Standard & Poor�s Ratings Agency, were up nearly 4%, ahead of McGraw-Hill results on Tuesday.

Shares for both firms have fallen after the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against S&P last week. The government says the ratings agency intentionally boosted ratings for certain financial products, specifically mortgage-backed securities related to collateralized-debt obligations, right before the financial crisis.

Barclays PLC BCS , is likely to cut costs by more than $3 billion and possibly lay off as many as 2,000 employees as part of some changes at the investment bank, according to reports. The British firm will report fourth-quarter earnings on Tuesday.

Barclays is likely to cut back some of the firm�s equity operations in Asia and some of the retail and commercial banking in parts of Europe, said a report in the Financial Times.

Click to Play Could the Dell deal die?

Dell's largest outside shareholder is opposing the Dell buyout deal, which might galvanize shareholders to resist the current offer. Andew Bary joins Markets Hub. Photo: AP.

Chief Executive Antony Jenkins is attempting to turn around the firm after the LIBOR scandal last year. The charges from regulators over manipulation of the interest rate led to several top executives leaving the firm. Barclays shares ended the day with a very small decline.

Goldman Sachs GS �veteran banker Gregg Lemkau has been named global co-head of mergers and acquisitions, according to a memo sent by the firm. Lemkau, who is currently the head of M&A in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, will co-head the unit with Gene Sykes, another veteran of the firm.

Goldman Sachs holds the top spot for the M&A business and the unit can be very lucrative for the firm. M&A has slowed in recent years but as the economy picks up, the business is likely to do the same.

Lemkau will be replaced by Gilberto Pozzi as head of M&A in Europe. Pozzi is currently global co-head of consumer and retail, according to a firm memo. Goldman Sachs shares were up modestly on the day. Read: While you were �Nemo� watching, Goldman got a little bearish on equities.

Dell Inc. DELL �on Monday filed a notice with the Securities and Exchange Commission saying that taking the company private is in the best interests of the shareholders.

Silver Lake Partners, not mentioned in the filing, is partnering with the CEO to do the deal. Dell�s largest investor, Southeastern Asset Management, which owns 8.5% of the company, has objected to the transaction.

Critics say the current LBO undervalues the company and investors have threatened to vote against the move, say reports. Dell shares were up slightly at $13.65. Read: Dell defends deal: �Shifts risk� to buyers.

DragonWave Rallies On Pair Of Contract Announcements

DragonWave (DRWI) shares are trading higher after the company this morning made a pair of contract announcements.

• The company said it signed a deal with The Blue Zone, a fixed wireless provider, for microwave backhaul equipment to be used in a system in Jordan. The value of the deal was not disclosed.
• DragonWave also announced that Atlantic Tele-Network (ATNI) has signed a master purchasing agreement to buy DRWI products. The value of the deal was not provided.

DRWI this morning is up 48 cents, or 6%, to $8.52.

General Dynamics Wins $29 Million in New Pentagon Contracts

On Wednesday, the Department of Defense awarded�two contracts worth a combined $28.9 million to divisions of defense contractor General Dynamics (NYSE: GD  ) .

The first and smaller contract, awarded to GD's Information Technology division, is an $8.4 million cost-plus-incentive-fee contract for the provision of "information technology and audio visual services" for the Mark Center in Alexandria, Va. Work on this contract is to be completed by Aug. 26, 2013.

The larger contract, awarded to the company's Ordnance and Tactical Systems division, is worth $20.5 million and modifies an existing contract for the procurement of 120mm tank training ammunition. A similar, smaller award was issued to GD rival Alliant Techsystems (NYSE: ATK  ) Wednesday as well. GD will supply the requested rounds sometime between now and March 15, 2015.

Hey, Top 1%! These Banks Will Show You Love

In the following video, Motley Fool financial analysts David Hanson and Matt Koppenheffer look at JPMorgan's (NYSE: JPM  ) cutting of 4,000 jobs from its retail branches as part of a larger trend. While the move in and of itself isn't all that significant, it represents a shift that many banks are pursuing -- a move to reduce the number of branches and shift into more electronic banking. While this may reduce the number of depositors, larger banks such as JPMorgan, Bank of America (NYSE: BAC  ) , and Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC  ) may be shifting strategically away from depositor quantity, and toward quality, with moves to build stronger relationships with their wealthier account holders.

Bank of America's stock doubled in 2012. Is there more yet to come? With significant challenges still ahead, it's critical to have a solid understanding of this megabank before adding it to your portfolio. In The Motley Fool's premium research report on B of A, analysts Anand Chokkavelu, CFA, and Matt Koppenheffer, Financials Bureau Chief, lift the veil on the bank's operations, including three reasons to buy and three reasons to sell. Click here now to claim your copy, and as an added bonus, you'll receive a full year of FREE updates and expert guidance as key news breaks.

Jack in The Penalty Box: Credit Suisse Cuts to Hold (Update)

Shares of fast-food chain Jack in The Box (JACK) are down 46 cents, or 2%, at $22.87 after Credit Suisse analyst Keith Siegner downgraded the shares to “Neutral” from “Outperform” following a fiscal Q2 EPS report yesterday afternoon that missed estimates by a wide margin.

Jack reported 32 cents per share, missing the average 40-cent estimate, as sales 8.4%, year over year. The company forecast EPS this year in line with estimates.

The company’s problems are not just about cyclical recovery, but about problems in winning market share, writes Siegner. He cut his EPS estimate for this year to $1.86 from $1.95, below the company’s forecast yesterday of $1.85 to $2.05, predominantly to reflect lower sales of its stores to franchisees.

There’s also a 1-penny per share profit hit from lower same-store sales at company-owned and franchised stores.

The company’s trying to do too many things to fix its business all at once, writes Siegner, focusing on both value customers and premium customers, brand-building, etc. — “Resources are spread to thin to resonate with the target consumer in any particular area,” he concludes.

Update: Siegner emailed to clarify that the main reason for his cutting EPS estimate this year was to reflect lower sales of stores by the company to franchisees.

3 FTSE 100 Shares Going Ex-Dividend Next Week

LONDON -- If you want to be eligible for company dividends, you must have purchased the shares before the ex-dividend date and held onto them at least until the market opens that day. The price of shares usually falls on ex-dividend day, too, as they no longer carry that extra bit of cash.

That makes ex-dividend day important for two sets of investors -- those who want the dividend and those who look for bargains when shares fall by more than expected. Here are three going ex-dividend next week that you might want to consider.

BHP Billiton (LSE: BLT  ) (NYSE: BBL  )
On Feb. 20, BHP Billiton released interim results that reflected the tough year the mining sector has had. Revenue fell 14% to $32 billion, with earnings per share plunging 58% to $0.80. But that was largely expected in a year of falling mineral and metal prices. What counts for us is the company's interim dividend, which was raised 4% to $0.57 per share. The shares will go ex-dividend on March 6, and the dividend will be paid on March 28. The share price currently stands at 2,086 pence.

Bringing you two miners for the price of one, Rio Tinto (LSE: RIO  ) -- a Fool Beginners' Portfolio constituent priced at 3,511 pence per share -- will go ex-dividend on the same day after lifting its full-year dividend by 18% to 106.77 pence per share. The final instalment, of 60.34 pence, will be paid on April 11.

Shire (LSE: SHP  )
Pharmaceuticals company Shire announced a strong set of 2012 results on Feb. 14, showing a 10% rise in total revenue to $4.7 billion. Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share came in at $6.10, up 14%. For the second half of the year, Shire will pay a dividend of 9.39 pence per share, with the ex-dividend date set for March 6.

The payment, which will be made on April 9, takes Shire's total dividend to 11.13 pence per share for a yield of 0.5% on the current share price of 2,100 pence.

TUI Travel (LSE: TT  )
On Dec. 4, travel operator TUI Travel announced a final dividend of 8.3 pence per share, lifting the full-year payout by 4% to 11.7 pence per share. On a share price of 310 pence, that's a yield of 3.8%. It will not be paid until April 9, with the ex-dividend date again being March 6.

TUI has managed to keep its dividends growing throughout the recession, and there are further rises forecast for this year and next, which should be well covered.

Dividends like these can add nicely to your investment returns -- they can be spent or reinvested, according to your needs. Whether you're investing for income or growth, good old cash is always welcome. And that's why I recommend the brand-new Fool report "The Motley Fool's Top Income Share For 2013," in which our top analysts identify a share they believe will provide handsome dividend income for years to come. But it will only be available for a limited period, so click here to get your copy today.

Opinion: Best of the Web Today: Liberal Racists Warn of Chaos

"A Democratic group is under sharp criticism for controversial online messages about Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell's wife," reports WFPL-FM, an NPR station in Louisville, Ky. For months Progress Kentucky, a liberal super PAC, has been stalking McConnell, the Bluegrass State's senior senator, holding "demonstrations at his offices and home."

Enlarge Image

Close Associated Press

The McConnells

But the attack on Mrs. McConnell, who in public goes by her maiden name of Elaine Chao, took place on Twitter. The station quotes a Progress Kentucky tweet dated Feb.�14: "This woman has the ear of (Sen. McConnell)�she's his wife. May explain why your job moved to China!" That was followed by a link to what WFPL describes as "a website run by conspiracy theorist and radio host Jeff Rense, alleging Chao, who was born in Taiwan, discriminated against American workers during her tenure." Chao served as labor secretary from 2001 through 2009.

The station quoted Curtis Morrison, a spokesman for Progress Kentucky: "It's not an official statement. It's a tweet. And we will remove it if it's wrong," he said. "I follow Ashley Judd on Twitter and she removed a Tweet the other day, she tweeted to you Phillip. People make mistakes in Tweets. It happens. Inferring that Elaine Chao is not a U.S. citizen was not our intention." (Ashley Judd is a loopy actress who is supposedly thinking about running against McConnell next year; Phillip Bailey is the WFPL reporter on the story.)

To judge by this quote, Morrison is a very confused man. Not only does he have difficulty distinguishing between implication and inference, but he misses the point of the complaints about his organization's tweet. The issue isn't Chao's citizenship status but the racially invidious nature of Progress Kentucky's attack on her.

Finally Shawn Reilly, Progress Kentucky's executive director, acknowledged the problem, telling Bailey in a follow-up report that the tweet "included an inappropriate comment on [Chao's] ethnicity." He added: "We apologize to the secretary for that unnecessary comment and have deleted the tweets in question. In addition, we have put a review process in place to ensure tweets and other social media communications from Progress Kentucky are reviewed and approved prior to posting." Maybe they should seek preclearance from the Justice Department.

McConnell and Chao have been married since 1993, and in all that time we don't remember a conservative or a Republican making an issue of her race or national origin. Since the wedding, McConnell has won re-election three times, suggesting that neither Republicans nor general-election voters in Kentucky--a state where slavery wasn't abolished until 1865--are bothered that their senator is in an interracial marriage.

Other than conspiracy nuts, the only people who seem bothered by it are the liberals at Progress Kentucky.

The AP Speaks Power to Truth Rush Limbaugh calls our attention to this Associated Press story from the other day:

The National Rifle Association is using a Justice Department memo it obtained to argue in ads that the Obama administration believes its gun control plans won't work unless the government seizes firearms and requires national gun registration--ideas the White House has not proposed and does not support.The NRA's assertion and its obtaining of the memo in the first place underscore the no-holds-barred battle under way as Washington's fight over gun restrictions heats up.The memo, under the name of one of the Justice Department's leading crime researchers, critiques the effectiveness of gun control proposals, including some of President Barack Obama's. A Justice Department official called the memo an unfinished review of gun violence research and said it does not represent administration policy.

Imagine the situation in reverse: A left-wing group releases a Justice Department memo that, it argues, suggests a Republican administration intends to curtail civil liberties despite the White House's public claims to the contrary.

Is it even imaginable that the AP would frame the left-wing civil-liberties group as the aggressor in a "no-holds-barred battle" the way it has here, or would flatly accept a Republican White House's assurance about its own intentions, as it does in the very first paragraph of this dispatch?

Ground Chuck Despite his manifest lack of qualification--or did we just have a Fox Butterfield moment there?--the Senate yesterday confirmed Chuck Hagel as defense secretary. The vote was 58-41, with only four Republicans--Mississippi's Thad Cochran, Nebraska's Mike Johanns, Kentucky's Rand Paul and Alabama's Richard Shelby--voting in favor.

Hagel's reputation took a beating during the confirmation process, which is primarily to say that people who had never heard of him before now know who he is. But perhaps the biggest indication of how he has fallen came in a New York Times editorial published yesterday. The Times, which supports pretty much anything President Obama does except when it is beneficial to national security, wrote: "A decorated Vietnam veteran, Mr. Hagel is one of a fading breed of moderate Republicans."

But a Times editorial of Jan.�8 described Hagel as "one of a fading breed of sensible moderate Republicans." A Times editorial of Feb.�1 echoed the sentiment, describing Hagel as "among a fading breed of sensible, moderate Republicans." (Both editorials also mentioned Hagel's status as a "decorated" Vietnam veteran.)

It's as if we suddenly described John Kerry as the haughty secretary of state who by the way served in Vietnam. By revising its boilerplate Hagel language, the paper has quietly acknowledged it can no longer defend its description of the new defense secretary as sensible. For once we suspect the Times editorial page will be proved right.

A Big Month for Non Sequiturs Maybe we were too hasty in giving the Chicago Sun-Times's Neil Steinberg the Non Sequitur of the Month award Monday. It's not that he doesn't deserve it, but that so much new competition has arisen in the waning days of February 2013. Here's Thomas Friedman in today's New York Times:

Visiting Mexico this past week reminded me of one of my favorite quotes from my days in Beirut. It was when a hostess asked her dinner guests during the Lebanese civil war: "Would you like to eat now or wait for the cease-fire?" One of the lessons of both Mexico and Lebanon is how irrepressible is the human spirit--that no matter how violent a country becomes, people will adapt and take risks to innovate or to make profits or get to school or to just have fun.

If there's a lesson in that anecdote, it's about either the fine line between comedy and tragedy or the use of dark humor as a coping mechanism in stressful times.

The Christian Science Monitor, meanwhile, has a story under the headline: "Just as Nixon Went to China, Should Obama Go to Iran?" The analogy makes no sense. "Only Nixon can go to China," as the ancient Vulcan proverb has it. But that's because Nixon had such strong anticommunist credentials that no one could accuse him of being soft on the Reds.

An analogous figure would be a U.S. politician who's been especially critical of Iran's mad mullahs--maybe John McCain or Joe Lieberman. Obama is at the other end of the spectrum. He once followed a "spiritual mentor" whose view of America was similar to the ayatollahs', and he ran for office in 2008 saying he wanted to talk to the Iranian regime. Which is another problem with the Monitor headline: Whether or not Obama "should go to Iran" is quite irrelevant inasmuch as there's no reason to think the Iranian rulers would let him in.

Great Moments in Public Education "A California high school student was shocked at what she found when she decided to play detective and stop a string of thefts from backpacks during gym class," ABC News reports:

Justine Betti said she decided to hide in a locker to see if she could catch the thief in action. She didn't expect the alleged culprit to be her gym teacher.After all of the students left the locker room, the teacher stayed behind, rummaged through backpacks and took money, Betti said.�.�.�.Betti .�.�. eventually took the video to her principal with some friends."He said that he'll investigate it and he told us to delete the video, but I had already sent it to my dad," she said.

The video was not destroyed, and ABC shows it with the rummager's face obscured. But a case could be made for prosecuting the principal for obstruction of justice.

Come Fly With Me From a Puffington Host post by Evangeline Lilly, an actress we haven't heard of:

I boarded a jet plane this past Friday and traveled 16 hours through the night to Washington, D.C. I was back on a plane again on Monday morning flying the reverse 16 hours back home. I was in Washington with over 40,000 other protesters for the Forward on Climate Rally, to call President Obama to say "no" to the [Keystone XL] pipeline.The journey was long and on the way there I read Tim Flannery's Now or Never, an inspiring (short) read on the state of the planet in the face of climate change. On the way back I was too exhausted to read or do anything productive, so I watched b-movies and contemplated my experience at the largest climate rally in U.S. history.

OK, there's one thing about this story we don't understand. If the plane was solar powered, how did she fly at night?

Fox Butterfield, Is That You?

• "Mental Health Law Increases Access to Substance Abuse Treatment, but Costs Rising"--headline, Forbes.com, Feb.�27
• "Still, only a small percentage--about 2.5%--of American workers primarily work from home despite congested roadways, long commutes and the demands of caring for young children or elderly parents."--Jessica Guynn, Los Angeles Times, Feb.�26
• "Outlook for U.S. Economy Improving, Despite Threat of Spending Cuts"--headline, Denver Post, Feb.�27

Other Than That, the Story Was Accurate

• "In quoting the superintendent in an earlier version of this story, a sentence read, 'He said officials have reason to believe that anyone is in danger.' That was an error on our part. The sentence should have read, 'He said officials have no reason to believe that anyone is in danger.'�"--WHTM-TV website (Harrisburg, Pa.), Feb.�26
• "A picture caption on Saturday with an article about concerns over a proposed liquid petroleum tank in the Maine coastal town of Searsport described incorrectly opponents of the tank who were shown standing in a circle and holding hands. They were demonstrating the tank's circumference, not its diameter."--New York Times, Feb.�27

Out on a Limb "Woodward Questions Obama's Competency as Commander in Chief"--headline, Washington Free Beacon, Feb.�27

We Blame George W. Bush "Obama Wants to Stop Blame Game, but Blames GOP for Sequester"--headline, RollCall.com, Feb.�26

What Would We Do Without Experts? "Experts: Pistorius Violated Basic Firearms Rules"--headline, Associated Press, Feb.�27

Most Annoying Telemarketer Ever "Hamas Calls to Kidnap IDF Soldiers, Yesterday, 6:12 AM"--headline, Arutz Sheva website, Feb.�26

The Print Business Is Really Hurting "With the current minimum wage, employees working full time make $15,000, according to Forbes Magazine, which is oftentimes below the poverty line."--Cady Zuvich, Review (University of Delaware), Feb.�25

The Onion Imitates Us

• "Cuba Democracia y Vida, a Sweden-based exile site, claims that Fidel Castro is dead, attributing the information to, as Google's rough translation puts it, 'a source near the Cuban regime of total credibility.' Havana has been holding back the announcement, the story says, while awaiting the results of the election in Venezuela, where Hugo Chavez, a younger, less dead version of Castro, is leading his challenger by 62% to 37%."--Best of the Web Today, Dec.�5, 2006
• "Humiliated Team of Cuban Doctors Forced to Continue Treating Long-Dead Fidel Castro"--headline, Onion, Feb.�26, 2013

Shortest Books Ever Written "What Otters' Penis Shrinkage Could Mean for Humans"--headline, LiveScience.com, Feb.�26

'How Did You Feel Before They Got the Eagle off You?' 'Baaaad.' "Zoo's Bald Eagle Captured After 3 Days on the Lam"--headline, Associated Press, Feb.�26

The Lonely Lives of Deputies "Las Vegas Constable's Deputy Serving Eviction Misses Dead Body in Apartment"--headline, Las Vegas Review-Journal, Feb.�26

Hey, Kids! What Time Is It? "Time for College Football to Issue a Declaration of Independence from the NCAA"--headline, Ricochet.com, Feb.�26

Questions Nobody Is Asking "Questions About Robotic Hysterectomy"--headline, New York Times website, Feb.�25

Too Much Information "Virgin Will Drop Tiger Deal If Capacity Increase Mandated"--headline, Bloomberg, Feb.�26

Breaking News From 1894 "Japan and China: A Clash of Civilizations?"--headline, Forbes.com, Feb.�25

Breaking News From 1912 "You Will Be Able to Board the Titanic in 2016"--headline, Salon.com, Feb.�26

News You Can Use "�'Django Unchained' Is Actually a White Revenge Fantasy"--headline, BusinessInsider.com, Feb.�26

Bottom Stories of the Day

• "President Obama, John Boehner Talking--but Not to Each Other"--headline, Politico.com, Feb.�26
• "CA Women Lawmakers Demand Academy Disavow MacFarlane's Oscar Gig as 'New Low' in Treatment of Women (VIDEO)"--headline, San Francisco Chronicle website, Feb.�26

A Whale of a Time "Will Journalism Go the Way of Whaling?" asks a headline on the New York Times's Opinionator blog. It's one of those dialogues between Gail Collins and David Brooks, so we don't need to read it to know it's inane. But we were so amused by reader Bob Acker's riff on the headline that we thought we'd quote it here:

"Will journalism go the way of whaling? You mean, will it be something the Japanese do on the sly? That might be rather amusing. I remember seeing an English-language sign in Japan--of course, it was at a ride at the amusement park--that said, 'You will be brandished and inverted. Can you stand the fear?' The idea of covering an Obama presser with stuff like that--and clandestinely to boot--OMG, can you stand the fear?"

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(Carol Muller helps compile Best of the Web Today. Thanks to Ethel Fenig, John Sanders, John Williamson, Eric Jensen, Kyle Kyllan, Michele Schiesser, David Hallstrom, Mark Finkelstein, John Sarna, Kevin Sohr, Craig Guiffre, Tim Clark, Gerald Massoudi, John Forney, Bruce Goldman, Ed Lasky, Eric Schultz, Aaron Ammerman, Greg Lindenberg, Andrew Strada, Scott Fredrickson, Irene DeBlasio, William McMillan and Ryan Baker If you have a tip, write us at opinionjournal@wsj.com, and please include the URL.)

BB&T: The Taxman Cometh

In the following video, Motley Fool financial analysts Matt Koppenheffer and David Hanson discuss BB&T's (NYSE: BBT  ) little tax problem. They tell investors about the hundreds of millions of dollars BB&T paid to the IRS, expecting to get it back, and why a very similar recent court case involving Bank of New York Mellon (NYSE: BK  ) may have set a precedent and may mean BB&T won't be getting its money back after all. Matt tells investors how much money is at stake and just how damaging this could be to BB&T if the courts don't rule in its favor.

With big finance firms still trading at deep discounts to their historic norms, investors everywhere are wondering if this is the new normal or whether finance stocks are a screaming buy today. The answer depends on the company, so to help you figure out whether BB&T should be on you radar, I invite you to read our premium research report on the company today. We'll fill you in on both reasons to buy and reasons to sell BB&T and what areas that BB&T investors need to watch going forward.�Click here now for instant access!

Why This Utica Driller Is up Big After Earnings

While it might not be its most productive play right now, Gulfport Energy (NASDAQ: GPOR  ) has high hopes for its acreage in the Utica Shale. Much like its larger brother, Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK  ) , Gulfport is scheduled to pour resources into this area, and rightfully so. Strong initial production flows and heavy oil and natural gas liquids content could mean the Utica Shale would end up rivaling its more prominent shale cousins -- the Bakken and Eagle Ford shales. Motley Fool energy analyst Taylor Muckerman believes that the Utica is the real deal. View the video below to find out what Gulfport had in store that helped lead to its big day in the markets today.

Energy investors would be hard-pressed to find another company trading at a deeper discount than Chesapeake Energy. Its share price depreciated after negative news surfaced concerning the company's management and spiraling debt picture. While these issues still persist, giant steps have been taken to help mitigate the problems. To learn more about Chesapeake and its enormous potential, you're invited to check out The Motley Fool's brand new premium report on the company. Simply click here now to access your copy, and as an added bonus, you'll receive a full year of key updates and expert guidance as news continues to develop.

What Makes Lincoln Electric One of America’s Best Companies

At first glance, Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ: LECO  ) seems like a typical mid-sized manufacturer. It focuses on producing materials and supplies used in welding, which has become increasingly important for a wide variety of applications in fast-growing industries, including oil and gas drilling, power generation, shipbuilding, automotive, and industrial construction. The Ohio-based company reports having nearly 10,000 employees worldwide and has posted more than $2.8 billion in sales over the past 12 months.

What truly makes Lincoln Electric special, though, is its long history of treating its employees better than those of nearly any other U.S. industrial company. In an era in which most manufacturing companies have moved their operations overseas in the name of cost savings, Lincoln Electric understands that by holding onto its experienced U.S. workforce, it retains the human capital it has helped develop and train, saving it from having to spend thousands of worker-hours bringing a new workforce up to speed.

The case for Lincoln Electric
Lincoln Electric strives to find balance in its treatment of everyone affected by its business, including its customers, workers, investors, and members of the general public. For its employees, the company provides an amazing level of pay and additional benefits, not to mention unparalleled job security.

Just this past December, Lincoln Electric marked its 79th straight year of paying its 3,000 American employees an annual bonus. For 2012, the company distributed $99.3 million in pre-tax profits those workers, amounting to an average bonus of nearly $34,000 per worker. Perhaps more impressively, the company avoided laying anyone off again last year, extending a streak of no layoffs that goes back at least to 1948. That's likely a huge part of why the company gets an 82% approval rating among employees on Glassdoor.

For customers, Lincoln Electric does an excellent job of making its products an essential part of their users' work. By keeping its equipment easy to use yet effective for the multiple purposes it must serve, Lincoln Electric builds loyalty among those who use its products, making it more likely that they'll come back to be repeat customers.

In some cases, shareholders would worry that such dedication to workers would come at their expense. Yet share prices have risen at a 15% annual clip since 2008 and at more than 18% over the past decade, with revenue growth posting average annual gains of more than 5% and a more than respectable return on capital.

Moreover, Lincoln Electric has done a good job of sharing its wealth with shareholders through dividends, with payout increases having come at about a 10% annual pace since 2010. Analysts continue to be optimistic about Lincoln Electric's prospects, projecting sales growth in the 6% range this year with similar gains for earnings.

Holding it all together is Lincoln Electric's corporate leadership, which understands that sacrifice can't simply come from the bottom of the ladder. During the recession, then-CEO John Stropki didn't hesitate to cut executive salaries as part of overall cost-cutting efforts, accepting a base-pay cut and a 55% cut in his bonus in 2009 from the previous year. Combined with hanging onto staff, the moves helped the company inspire its workers and get through tough times together.

Lincoln Electric also does plenty to help those beyond its walls. David Lincoln, the son of founder John Lincoln, has become a major philanthropist in the Phoenix area, founding new businesses of his own and donating millions of dollars to nonprofit organizations and educational institutions. Moreover, Lincoln Electric's Green Initiative Program includes training systems that avoid unnecessary waste of welding gas and other power sources, as well as a commitment to reduced emissions and air systems designed to capture fumes from welding fuel exhaust.

Things to consider
As much as Lincoln Electric has a reputation for being a populist employer, it's important to understand that top managers do get bigger rewards than workers on the floor. In 2011, then-CEO Stropki earned more than $6.1 million in total compensation, much of which came from incentive plan compensation. He and other top executives have seen massive pay increases as the company recovered from the financial crisis.

Yet Lincoln Electric doesn't have to be perfect in order to outperform the vast majority of its peers. With so many companies treating workers badly and still giving even more compensation for top executives, Lincoln Electric stands out among the corporate crowd.

Foolish bottom line
Lincoln Electric's unparalleled commitment to its workers has paid dividends not just for them but for investors, customers, and the communities in which the company works. The company stands as an example of how short-term-focused cost-cutting can be short-sighted and counterproductive in the long run.

Click here to read about the rest of The 25 Best Companies in America.

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Why Accretive Health Shares Got Crushed

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of Accretive Health (NYSE: AH  ) plummeted 25% today after the hospital revenue services provider postponed the release of its fourth-quarter and full-year 2012 financial results.

So what: Accretive said that it is reviewing the way it recognizes revenue under its revenue cycle management agreements, triggering serious investor concern that it may have to restate earnings for previous periods. While the company said the any such restatement shouldn't impact total revenue recognized over the life of a contract, the announcement alone brings yet another cloud of uncertainty over the stock and calls management's credibility into question.

Now what: Expect the stock to remain under plenty of pressure in the short term.

"The company's gone radio silent, so we don't know the complete extent of what they're reviewing and what the outcome may be," cautioned Eric Coldwell, an analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co. "It's a riskier situation."

Of course, with a balance sheet boasting $177 million in cash and zero debt, Accretive's downside seems limited enough to make it an intriguing long-term bargain candidate.

While you can certainly make huge gains in health services stocks like Accretive, the best investing approach is to choose great companies and stick with them for the long term. The Motley Fool's free report "3 Stocks That Will Help You Retire Rich" names stocks that could help you build long-term wealth and retire well, along with some winning wealth-building strategies that every investor should be aware of.�Click here now�to keep reading.

United Launch Alliance Launches 2nd Rocket in 12 Days

The United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing (NYSE: BA  ) and Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT  ) , announced in a press statement Monday that it successfully�launched an Atlas V rocket carrying a NASA Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) load. The Monday launch marked the second Atlas V rocket launch�in just 12 days and the second this year.

The ULA has another scheduled Atlas V launch coming up next�month, when one of its rockets is scheduled to take off March 19 from Cape Canaveral with a missile-warning satellite payload from the U.S. Air Force.

ULA Vice President of Mission Operations Jim Sponnick was quoted in the press release as saying, "This is the second NASA mission ULA has launched in just 12 days. The ability to successfully execute this launch rate is a testament to a very dedicated and skilled workforce, excellent teamwork with our NASA customer and all of our mission partners..."

The Landsat program provides "repetitive acquisition of high resolution multispectral data of the Earth's surface on a global basis. The data from the Landsat spacecraft constitute the longest record of the Earth's continental surfaces as seen from space," according to the ULA. This week's launch was the 68th ULA launch in just over six years.

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Automobiles Enter the Age of Apps

Get ready for an app invasion in your car... lots and lots of apps. They can make your driving fun, entertaining, more useful, and save you money. And despite your first thoughts, they can also be used safely.

Ford (NYSE: F  ) has opened up its in-dash entertainment and communications system, SYNC, to all app developers -- and this open developer program won the company an Editor's Choice award from Popular Mechanics at the recent International CES in Las Vegas.

Motley Fool analyst Rex Moore spoke with Ford Chief Technologist John Ellis at the event. In this installment of the series, Ellis explains his company's change of philosophy that now enables drivers to personalize the entertainment experience in their cars better.

Ford has been performing incredibly well as a company over the past few years -- it's making good vehicles, is consistently profitable, recently reinstated its dividend, and has done a remarkable job paying down its debt. The stock has recently taken off, and it appears investors have started to notice what Ford is doing right. Does this create an incredible buying opportunity, or are there hidden risks with the stock that investors need to know about? To answer that, one of our top equity analysts has compiled a premium research report with in-depth analysis on�whether Ford is a buy�right now, and why. Simply�click here�to get instant access to this premium report.

Hanger Beats on Both Top and Bottom Lines

Hanger (NYSE: HGR  ) reported earnings on Feb. 13. Here are the numbers you need to know.

The 10-second takeaway
For the quarter ended Dec. 31 (Q4), Hanger beat slightly on revenues and beat expectations on earnings per share.

Compared to the prior-year quarter, revenue grew and GAAP earnings per share grew significantly.

Gross margins contracted, operating margins contracted, net margins increased.

Revenue details
Hanger booked revenue of $272.2 million. The five analysts polled by S&P Capital IQ expected revenue of $267.7 million on the same basis. GAAP reported sales were 9.7% higher than the prior-year quarter's $248.1 million.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Quarterly periods. Dollar amounts in millions. Non-GAAP figures may vary to maintain comparability with estimates.

EPS details
EPS came in at $0.58. The five earnings estimates compiled by S&P Capital IQ averaged $0.56 per share. GAAP EPS of $0.62 for Q4 were 17% higher than the prior-year quarter's $0.53 per share.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Quarterly periods. Non-GAAP figures may vary to maintain comparability with estimates.

Margin details
For the quarter, gross margin was 38.3%, 30 basis points worse than the prior-year quarter. Operating margin was 14.5%, 480 basis points worse than the prior-year quarter. Net margin was 8.0%, 80 basis points better than the prior-year quarter.

Looking ahead
Next quarter's average estimate for revenue is $231.1 million. On the bottom line, the average EPS estimate is $0.24.

Next year's average estimate for revenue is $1.04 billion. The average EPS estimate is $2.00.

Investor sentiment
The stock has a five-star rating (out of five) at Motley Fool CAPS, with 104 members out of 110 rating the stock outperform, and six members rating it underperform. Among 33 CAPS All-Star picks (recommendations by the highest-ranked CAPS members), 32 give Hanger a green thumbs-up, and one give it a red thumbs-down.

Of Wall Street recommendations tracked by S&P Capital IQ, the average opinion on Hanger is buy, with an average price target of $31.67.

Is Hanger the best health care stock for you? Learn how to maximize your investment income and "Secure Your Future With 9 Rock-Solid Dividend Stocks," including one above-average health care logistics company. Click here for instant access to this free report.

• Add Hanger to My Watchlist.

The Takeaway: Bill Gross goes super-nova negative

Portfolio

Stock mutual funds take in another $6.3 billion last week. (Focus On Funds)

Did the Fed hint at changes coming soon? (Schwab)

Under the hood of WisdomTree's new global debt ETF. (Index Universe)

Bill Gross ups the bearish rhetoric in his latest monthly commentary, beginning with a quote about the world coming to an end. (PIMCO)

The Biz

Expect a big year for brokers and advisors on the move in 2013, many of whom will go independent. (Investment News)

The law school bubble is bursting. Maybe they'll all become advisors? (New York Times)

How one RBC advisor has built his practice through custom tailoring to families. (Financial Planning)

Outliers

THE RETURN OF DICK B?V?! (Dealbreaker)

***

Disclaimer: Joshua Brown is an investment advisor representative with Fusion Analytics. The content above is for informational purposes only, nothing here should ever be construed as investment advice or a solicitation to trade any securities. Mr. Brown or his firm may be long or short securities mentioned above for client or personal accounts at any time.

Finally, a Few Bright Signs for Alcatel-Lucent Investors

While Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU  ) has long struggled with bearishness around its stock as it faces severe industry headwinds, its head of sales and marketing, Robert Vrij, spoke at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and gave cause for optimism. In this video, Motley Fool tech and telecom analyst Andrew Tonner tells us that while the company is still struggling in Europe, it does maintain very strong ties with both Verizon (NYSE: VZ  ) and AT&T (NYSE: T  ) in the U.S. and is building relationships in the Chinese emerging market as well.

More Great Advice from the Motley Fool

The Motley Fool's chief investment officer has selected his No. 1 stock for the next year. Find out which stock it is in the brand-new free report: "The Motley Fool's Top Stock for 2013." Just click here to access the report and find out the name of this under-the-radar company.

Dollar slips against euro as Italy fears ease

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) � The dollar eased against the euro on Wednesday as investors took fears related to the Italian political situation in stride, and after U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said he backed the central bank�s asset-purchase program.

The ICE dollar index DXY , which measures the greenback�s performance against six major global currencies, slipped to 81.788 by late afternoon in Tokyo from 81.948 in North America Wednesday.

The WSJ dollar index XX:BUXX �, a gauge of the currency�s moves versus a slightly wider basket of rival units, slipped to 72.63 from 72.70.

Click to Play Bernanke faces opposition on inflation record

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke was forced to vigorously defend his inflation record in day one of his two-day testimony to Congress.

The euro EURUSD EURJPY �was fetching $1.3086, up from $1.3065, and 120.13 yen as compared with �120.05.

The dollar USDJPY was little changed at �91.81 versus �91.88.

�European markets should see a more subdued start than yesterday, and while the Italian political issues haven�t materially impacted the psyche of U.S. and Asian equity traders, [they have] certainly influenced forex players,� said Chris Weston, chief market strategist at IG Markets.

Hints of stabilization appeared in the foreign-exchange markets as Italy�s political parties began exploring the possibility of stitching together a government after an inconclusive election result had resurrected worries of a euro-zone crisis. Such fears had weighed heavily on risk currencies such as the euro earlier this week.

Also, Fed Chairman Bernanke Tuesday said in remarks to the Senate Banking Committee that he backed continuation of the central bank�s bond purchases, worth $85 billion a month, easing worries about the impact from an end to that program.

Among other major currency pairs, the British pound GBPUSD was fetching $1.5108 as compared with $1.5128.

The Australian dollar AUDUSD �was changing hands for $1.0228 versus $1.0233.

Dow Jumps on New Housing Sales

A day after Italian elections sent stocks tumbling, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI  ) battled back to finish with a gain of 116 points, or 0.8%, on some strong economic reports and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's defense of its bond-buying program.

January new-home sales jumped 16% to 437,000, well ahead of expectations of 383,000, as they reached their highest level since July 2008. The surprising increase helped reassure investors of the continuing housing recovery after a weak housing starts report last week, and sent homebuilder stocks soaring as Hovnavian jumped 11% and KB Home gained 7%. Dow component Home Depot (NYSE: HD  ) was also up 5.7%, propelled by the new-home sales report and its own strong earnings report (more on that later).

The conference board's Consumer Confidence rating also jumped from 58.4 in January to 69.0 in February, topping expectations of 62.0, proof that consumers appear to be recovering from concerns about the fiscal cliff and adjusting to the payroll-tax increase. The February reading was the highest since November.

And Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke made his semiannual trip to Capitol Hill to give his report on the economy. The chairman defended the central bank's bond-buying program, dismissing rumors from last week that the Fed would soon disband it. Investors responded positively to his comments.

Home Depot was the big winner on the Dow, gaining 5.7% after reporting that profits increased 34% to $0.68 a share, beating estimates of $0.64. Sales grew 14% to $18.2 billion, and same-store sales jumped 7%, a strong clip aided by the housing recovery and repairs needed following Hurricane Sandy. Guidance for 2013 came in below expectations, however, with an EPS of $3.37 on a 2% sales increase. Analysts are forecasting $3.50 a share. The home-improvement retailer also raised its quarterly dividend 34% to $0.39 a share.

Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ  ) was another big winner, gaining 3.8%, as the market responded warmly to the PC-maker's announcement that it will use Android for its new tablets. HP will sell the WebOS mobile operating system, which it obtained when it bought Palm for $1.2 billion in 2010, to South Korean electronics-maker LG for an undisclosed amount. CEO Meg Whitman also said she plans on selling other components that don't fit the company's strategy. Shares of the tech veteran have been roaring since the Autonomy debacle, up 70% in three months.

The massive wave of mobile computing has done much to unseat the major players in the PC market, including venerable technology names like Hewlett-Packard. However, HP's rapidly shifting its strategy under the new leadership of CEO Meg Whitman. But does this make HP one of the least-appreciated turnaround stories on the market, or is this a minor blip on its road to irrelevance? The Motley Fool's technology analyst details exactly what investors need to know about HP in our new premium research report. Just click here now to get your copy today.

Morgan Stanley Rises as FBR Ups to Buy

Shares of Morgan Stanley (MS) are up 39 cents, or 1.4%, at $28.19, defying the dip in financials, as FBR Capital analyst Steve Stelmach this morning raised his rating on the stock to “Outperform” from “Market Perform,” with a $35 price target, writing that Morgan is “transitioning into what we believe will be a more stable, retail-oriented business model.”

Stelmach’s note comes a day after rumors spread that the firm is under criminal investigation related to its dealings in mortgage derivatives. But he brushes that off, writing that “Regulatory risks are likely to persist, however we do not view Morgan Stanley as any more or less exposed to regulatory risks than competitors.”

Stelmach sees book value rising $2 to $24 later this year, and to $30 by the end of 2011, assuming a “mid-teen long-term return on equity.” The stock is currently at 1 times book, which reflects a mere 10% return on equity, an overly conservative valuation, he believes.

Stelmach sees the firm gaining in its trading business, by being more focused on retail customers than peers, who are chasing institutions, predominantly. With “aggressive” hiring of traders in investment banking, moreover, the company will at least be able to support the “current run rate” in investment banking business even as peers see a deceleration in revenue “as market conditions become less accomodative.”

Stelmach also sees the Euro zone’s $1 trillion bailout package as providing “more opportunities for market share gains, as increased uncertainty and volatility tends to engender higher revenue opportunities.”

Is It Time to Buy This Battered Gas Company?

In the following video, Motley Fool energy analyst Joel South takes a look at Ultra Petroleum (NYSE: UPL  ) , and asks why it might be a great buy today. The stock was beaten down after low natural gas prices in 2012 made for a difficult year, but with those prices�significantly higher than the sub-$2 mark, the future looks bright for UPL. With many of the other natural gas producers having shifted into oil production, natural gas supply is now starting to retreat, which means the price is set to slowly climb higher. Getting in with UPL at this price point, before those natural gas prices go back up, could represent a big opportunity for investors.

There are many different ways to play the energy sector, and The Motley Fool's analysts have uncovered an under-the-radar company that's dominating its industry. This company is a leading provider of equipment and components used in drilling and production operations, and poised to profit in a big way from it. To get the name and detailed analysis of this company that will prosper for years to come, check out the special free report: "The Only Energy Stock You'll Ever Need." Don't miss out on this limited-time offer and your opportunity to discover this under-the-radar company before the market does. Click here to access your report -- it's totally free.

Time to Buy Activision Blizzard?

The following video is from Friday's Motley Fool Money roundtable discussion, with host Chris Hill and analysts Jason Moser, James Early, and Ron Gross.

In this segment, Activision Blizzard's (NASDAQ: ATVI  ) �fourth-quarter earnings came in higher than expected. The video game maker also raised guidance on first-quarter profits, which brought shares up by more than 7% on Friday morning. The guys discuss why the leader in the video game world has such a stagnant stock price that's always stuck in neutral.

Video game makers, like Activision Blizzard, that offer the classical video game business model are what really bring unusual business models like Zynga's into question. Zynga's post-IPO performance has been dreadful, and investors are beginning to wonder if it's "game over" for this newly-public company. Being so closely tied to the world's largest social network can be a blessing and a curse. You can learn everything you need to know about Zynga, and whether it's a buy or a sell, in our new premium research report. Don't even think about picking up shares before you read what our top analysts have to say about Zynga. Click here to access your copy.

The relevant video segment can be found between 16:21 and 17:10.

For the full video of today's Motley Fool Money, click here.

Stifel flying lazy circles over B-D stragglers

Stifel Financial Corp. (SF) Chief Executive Officer Ron Kruszewski paused in mid-sentence and asked an employee for the list, a chart showing in red which of the St. Louis-based firm's rivals have closed or sold out.

“There's this huge consolidation,” Kruszewski, 54, said in an interview in his office, referring to the once crowded field of U.S. regional and local brokerages that vied to serve mid-size companies. “What's left is very few firms that ever were in the middle market. We're one of them.”

About a dozen golf putters lean against a table. Nine floors down, the lobby is being remodeled with glass and white stone, while a bronze bull and bear statue is planned for outside. The way Kruszewski views it, St. Louis is now the No. 2 U.S. brokerage hub after New York. From his window he can see the Edward Jones Dome, the stadium named for the city's other prominent securities firm and home field of the National Football League's Rams.

Kruszewski is looking to U.S. brokerage-industry turmoil to provide yet more opportunities to grab market share and grow after a decade of acquisitions propelled Stifel ahead of peers. Smaller firms including Rodman & Renshaw LLC and WJB Capital Group Inc. are shuttering operations or selling themselves to larger companies as a drop in trading and lower commissions squeeze margins. Meanwhile, so-called bulge-bracket banks such as Citigroup Inc. and UBS AG are cutting employees and units as they retrench in the wake of the financial crisis.

'Wildest Dreams'

Navigating that shakeup is key to reigniting Stifel's stock, which snapped a nine-year ascent in 2011, as it fell 23 percent, and then ended last year little changed. Kruszewski says his mission is to simply build the firm into a larger version of its current self: a middle-market brokerage and investment bank. The stock is still up 10-fold since 2001.

When Kruszewski became CEO in 1997, Stifel employed 733 people and had annual revenue of $136 million. The company has since spent at least $1.7 billion on 24 acquisitions, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. There are now more than 5,000 employees and annual revenue exceeds $1.4 billion.

“I don't think anybody in their wildest dreams would've predicted the enormity of his success,” said Stuart Greenbaum, former dean of Washington University's Olin Business School in St. Louis and a member of Stifel's board of directors when Kruszewski was hired. “Every growth opportunity is a failure opportunity at the same time. I think he's done extraordinarily well.”

Rivals Grapple

Other mid-size brokerages and investment banks have grappled with how to grow. Cantor Fitzgerald LP, which has become one of the largest independent U.S. brokerages, has also attempted to push into underwriting and advisory businesses. Moody's Investors Service downgraded Cantor Fitzgerald's credit rating to junk in October, saying the firm's profitability has weakened even as it diversifies.

Jefferies Group Inc. (JEF), the New York-based investment bank run by Richard Handler, has hired bankers and traders and expanded its balance sheet to take on larger transactions. Assets have grown from less than $15 billion in 2005 to about $36 billion at the end of 2012, with staff surging 86 percent in that period.

The firm agreed in November to sell itself to Leucadia National Corp. (LUK), the investment firm that's Jefferies's biggest shareholder. The announcement came almost a year after Jefferies's shares plunged following the October 2011 bankruptcy of MF Global Holdings Ltd. (MFGLQ) The deal will make Jefferies better able to weather market turmoil, the companies said at the time.

'Always' Looking

Stifel runs a wealth-management business and an institutional unit that includes investment banking, research, sales and trading, catering to companies with as much as $5 billion in market value. Kruszewski said he's comfortable pulling between 55 percent and 65 percent of the firm's revenue from wealth management.

Stifel has added to both units through hiring and acquisitions, he said. In 2009, the firm acquired about 55 brokerage branches from Zurich-based UBS for $46 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It also purchased Ryan Beck Holdings Inc. in 2007 for about $100 million, the data show. The company is “always” looking to add to its wealth- management business, Kruszewski said.

Analysts and investors point to Stifel's 2005 acquisition of Legg Mason Inc.'s capital-markets business from New York- based Citigroup as the deal that bolstered the firm's institutional business. Other deals include its purchase of Thomas Weisel Partners Group Inc. in 2010 to add health-care and technology banking.

Plate Full

“Because they stuck to their knitting through the years, they were able to emerge from the financial crisis in an offensive position where a lot of their competitors, larger and smaller, were playing defense,” said Devin Ryan, an analyst at Sandler O'Neill & Partners LP.

In 2011, Stifel had net income of $84.1 million. For 2012, that figure is expected to jump to $138.3 million, according to the average estimate of three analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Stifel has posted record net revenue every year since Kruszewski took over as CEO. Analysts estimate revenue to reach $1.61 billion in 2012, a 14 percent increase from 2011.

Stifel's global wealth-management group had $908.2 million in revenue in 2011, and the institutional division had $507.4 million.

While the global wealth-management unit has room to grow, “our plate is pretty full” on the institutional side, Kruszewski said.

Tangible Book

Stifel's trading floor carpeting is a patchwork of patterns, expanded in pieces as the company adds desks and employees. On a recent Monday afternoon, the floor was as quiet as an insurance office. No one was standing and yelling. Bells weren't ringing. A few traders turned around to say “Hey, Ron,” as Kruszewski walked by.

Last year, Stifel agreed to buy KBW Inc. (KBW), an investment bank focused on the financial services industry, in a transaction valued at $575 million. The deal, which pays KBW shareholders $17.50 in cash and stock, gives the New York-based firm a valuation that is 7.4 percent higher than its closing price on Nov. 2, the last trading day before the deal was announced.

Stifel investors such as Randy Loving of Silvant Capital Management LLC say they're concerned the firm overpaid. KBW's shares already were trading at 1.3 times tangible book value --a measure of how much a firm would theoretically be worth in liquidation -- when the deal was announced, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Deal Volume

“I don't think they needed to pay the amount of money that they paid,” said Loving, a sector portfolio manager for Atlanta-based Silvant whose team oversees $3 billion. KBW was “shutting down parts of the business, and had that continued, I think it's possible that Stifel could've picked up whatever expertise they needed somewhat cheap,” he said.

Moreover, adding sales-and-trading and investment-banking businesses increases earnings risk and volatility, Loving said. It also makes Stifel more dependent on an upturn in banking volume, something Loving said he's not convinced will happen.

“When you think about Stifel as a stock, it actually did OK during the downturn because it was devoid of all these issues,” he said.

After reaching a March 2011 closing high of $49.60, Stifel closed at $36.85 yesterday, down 26 percent from its peak. Still, the firm's shares have outperformed those of the biggest banks since the financial crisis. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has declined 32 percent since the end of 2007 and Morgan Stanley has plunged 57 percent. Stifel has gained more than 50 percent in that period.

'Advice Driven'

With global deal volume about half of what it was in 2007, it may be too early to judge many of Stifel's acquisitions, said Errol Rudman, portfolio manager at Rudman Capital Management in New York. The KBW deal, in addition to other institutional purchases, positions the firm to take advantage of an upswing in investment-banking activity, he said.

“They expanded at a time when others were contracting, and secondly, they've paid prices that reflected the failed businesses they were buying,” Rudman said. “When and if the time changes, they'll be leveraged to that concept of being larger and having purchased the assets at a cheap price.”

Kruszewski's goal is to build Stifel into a “bigger version of what we are today” by adding employees and letting the balance sheet grow along with it.

What they don't plan to do, he said, is try to boost returns by leveraging the firm's assets.

“That has not proven to be successful,” he said. “We are an advice-driven firm, we provide execution.”

Stifel has “a really solid name as a regional firm,” meaning one that has a few thousand advisers instead of upwards of 20,000, said Mindy Diamond, CEO of Diamond Consultants LLC, a Chester, New Jersey-based search and consulting firm for the brokerage industry.

Regional brokerages can be attractive to financial advisers who prefer more access to senior leadership and don't want to be “one of the 18,000,” she said. They also appeal to those who value culture and size more than the price of a transition package, she said. Regional firms typically pay two times an adviser's trailing 12-month revenue with bigger companies paying 3 to 3 1/2 times, Diamond said.

Advisers looking for a regional firm might prefer that Stifel is based in St. Louis instead of New York because it has a Midwest culture that “works to its advantage,” Diamond said. Known for Budweiser beer, barbecue ribs and ragtime music, the city has a metro population of 2.8 million.

Indiana Native

Stifel's headquarters are less than a mile from Busch Stadium, home of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team, which has won two World Series titles since 2006. A pair of infield box season tickets cost about $9,500 for 2013. Similar seats for the New York Yankees are about $30,000.

Kruszewski grew up in South Bend, Indiana, about 100 miles east of Chicago. A fan of Chicago sports teams when younger, his allegiances are now “St. Louis through and through,” he said.

Kruszewski's background as an accountant has been a factor in the firm's success integrating acquisitions, investors including Rudman say. A graduate of Indiana University in Bloomington, Kruszewski joined Robert W. Baird & Co. in 1989, where he served as a managing director and chief financial officer of the Milwaukee-based wealth-management and investment- banking firm, according to a 1997 statement from Stifel.

Cost Advantage

He decorates his office with several bull and bear statues of his own, and parks his black Porsche in the basement garage. Pointing to the golf clubs in his office, he says, “None of those putters work,” before laughing and admitting it might be the golfer who's at fault.

Being based in St. Louis gives Stifel a cost advantage over larger competitors, Kruszewski said. Running the same operation in New York would be “a different story” when it comes to expenses, he said. Still, he said he doesn't expect New York to lose its status as the financial center of the world.

“People say, why do you keep building the firm in light of all these declining revenues?” Kruszewski said. “Why not?”

--Bloomberg News--

Powerful Developer Eyes Rochester, New York

WinnDevelopment has acquired an historic building in downtown Rochester, NY, and is continuing plans for development despite the potential loss of its primary tenant. The developer intends to refurbish the 1-million-sq.-ft. landmark and implement a plan of mixed retail, office space and apartment units. Industry experts are interested in the development because it’s yet another sign of big-name players taking interest in areas that are more off the beaten path than primary markets like New York or San Francisco. For more on this continue reading the following article from National Real Estate Investor.

WinnDevelopment is still committed to the landmark Sibley Department Store building in downtown Rochester, N.Y., even after a setback that could rob the firm of its anchor tenant.

“We are bullish on Rochester,” says Joseph Eddy, vice president for Boston-based WinnDevelopment. Winn’s plan for Rochester includes a mix of office, retail space and the new construction of more than 100 apartments. It’s just the latest example of a major company committing to build far from the hottest real estate markets in a few gateway cities like New York, San Francisco and Boston.

At the end of 2012, Winn paid $7 million for the Sibley building, once a beloved department store on Rochester’s Main Street. “It was the largest department store between Chicago and New York,” says Eddy. The price works out to just $7 per-sq.-ft. for the 1-million-sq.-ft. landmark, which has stood mostly empty for more than a decade. A local community college fills roughly a quarter of the space, along with another 21 local companies and nonprofits.

WinnDevelopment plans to rent the first floor of the six-story department store to shops and restaurants. The next five floors would fill with office tenants. The antique escalators and elevators from the old department store make it easier to re-purpose the building by providing many different access routes. Winn plans to build a new lobby for Sibley’s suitable for class-A office space, along with streetscape improvements along Main Street. Construction will start in March on a new police substation.

WinnDevelopment plans to build 150 to 200 apartments in a 12-story tower that once housed Sibley’s corporate headquarters. “The footprint works out very well for apartments,” says Eddy. Half would be luxury apartments, the rest would be reserved for lower-income seniors.

Rochester strong

Rochester is a relatively small city of about 200,000 people on the shores of Lake Ontario in upstate New York. But the real estate market is strong and steady. “We are more of a tortoise than a hare,” says local expert Gar Lowenguth, a broker for Re/Max Realty. “We don’t get the big highs and we don’t get the big lows.”

Rochester’s apartment market had an average vacancy rate of just 3.2 percent in the fourth quarter, according to data firm Reis. That’s very low—even in today’s tight apartment market. The average effective rent was $776. “The rents aren’t like Boston, but the vacancy rate is,” says Eddy.

The apartment market was strong enough to absorb a little new construction, as the apartment inventory increased 0.4 percent in 2012. More new projects will in grow the inventory 1.9 percent over 2013 and 2014. The office market is also relatively strong, with a vacancy rate of 16.6 percent, according to Reis. That’s down from a high of 18.3 percent two years before.

Rochester benefits from several colleges and universities, including the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester. “They have an excellent intellectual capital base. It’s an affluent city,” says Eddy. The city is also investing in a new, $50 million transit center just across Main Street from the Sibley building.

MCC disappointment

WinnDevelopment’s plan for Sibley suffered a setback in February when Monroe County officials voted to allow Monroe Community College to potentially move its campus from the Sibley building downtown to the Kodak campus, a few miles from downtown. However, WinnDevelopment is confident that the project can survive the loss of its largest tenant—if the move ever becomes a reality.

“The college has 4.5 years left on their lease with us,” says Eddy. “We have enough time to do the apartments and find new office tenants.”

Why Altera May Be About to Take Off

Here at The Motley Fool, I've long cautioned investors to keep a close eye on inventory levels. It's a part of my standard diligence when searching for the market's best stocks. I think a quarterly checkup can help you spot potential problems. For many companies, products that sit on the shelves too long can become big trouble. Stale inventory may be sold for lower prices, hurting profitability. In extreme cases, it may be written off completely and sent to the shredder.

Basic guidelines
In this series, I examine inventory using a simple rule of thumb: Inventory increases ought to roughly parallel revenue increases. If inventory bloats more quickly than sales grow, this might be a sign that expected sales haven't materialized. Is the current inventory situation at Altera (Nasdaq: ALTR  ) out of line? To figure that out, start by comparing the company's inventory growth to sales growth. How is Altera doing by this quick checkup? At first glance, not so great. Trailing-12-month revenue decreased 13.6%, and inventory increased 24.9%. Comparing the latest quarter to the prior-year quarter, the story looks potentially problematic. Revenue shrank 4.0%, and inventory expanded 24.9%. Over the sequential quarterly period, the trend looks worrisome. Revenue dropped 11.2%, and inventory dropped 3.2%.

Advanced inventory
I don't stop my checkup there, because the type of inventory can matter even more than the overall quantity. There's even one type of inventory bulge we sometimes like to see. You can check for it by examining the quarterly filings to evaluate the different kinds of inventory: raw materials, work-in-progress inventory, and finished goods. (Some companies report the first two types as a single category.)

A company ramping up for increased demand may increase raw materials and work-in-progress inventory at a faster rate when it expects robust future growth. As such, we might consider oversized growth in those categories to offer a clue to a brighter future, and a clue that most other investors will miss. We call it "positive inventory divergence."

On the other hand, if we see a big increase in finished goods, that often means product isn't moving as well as expected, and it's time to hunker down with the filings and conference calls to find out why.

What's going on with the inventory at Altera? I chart the details below for both quarterly and 12-month periods.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Data is current as of latest fully reported quarter. Dollar amounts in millions. FY = fiscal year. TTM = trailing 12 months.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Data is current as of latest fully reported quarter. Dollar amounts in millions. FQ = fiscal quarter.

Let's dig into the inventory specifics. On a trailing-12-month basis, raw materials inventory was the fastest-growing segment, up 33.9%. On a sequential-quarter basis, raw materials inventory was also the fastest-growing segment, up 35.0%. Although Altera shows inventory growth that outpaces revenue growth, the company may also display positive inventory divergence, suggesting that management sees increased demand on the horizon.

Foolish bottom line
When you're doing your research, remember that aggregate numbers such as inventory balances often mask situations that are more complex than they appear. Even the detailed numbers don't give us the final word. When in doubt, listen to the conference call, or contact investor relations. What at first looks like a problem may actually signal a stock that will provide great returns. And what might look hunky-dory at first glance could actually be warning you to cut your losses before the rest of the Street wises up.

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5 Smart Money Moves for Near-Retirees

If you want to be financially secure, you need advice that's tailored to your own situation. With that premise in mind, we're looking this week at what people of all ages can do to shore up their finances and make the most of the resources they have.

Yesterday's column focused on those who have already retired. But today, let's turn our attention to people approaching retirement to highlight the specific issues and needs that near-retirees have.

Getting ready to retire
If you're in the final years of your career, you're having to deal with tougher challenges than your parents and grandparents faced. In past decades, a career often meant sticking with one employer for life and then receiving a healthy pension to supplement Social Security and provide you with sufficient income to last the rest of your life.

Now, though, most near-retirees don't have the luxury of a private pension, and with many not having saved enough for retirement, they're dealing with the prospect of trying to hold on to their jobs even as layoffs loom and unemployment is at extremely high levels.

You may not have as much time as you'd like to fix your finances. But here are five ideas to use to get started on the right path.

Idea 1: Save more than you think possible.
If you're one of the fortunate near-retirees who've been able to keep their jobs throughout the recession, you're probably at or near your peak earning potential. Yet as adult children finish college and leave home, and as your mortgage approaches final payoff, you should have fewer demands on your money.

That sets the stage for immense savings. Although typical guidance says to save 10% to 15% of your salary, there's no reason you can't go much higher. For some high-income earners, saving as much as half of your salary isn't impossible, and with 401(k) limits for those 50 and older of $23,000 and an extra $6,500 available for IRA contributions, you can do much of that saving on a tax-favored basis.

Idea 2: Don't hit the brakes on your investing.
Typically, financial advisors tell those approaching retirement to cut back on stocks and emphasize bonds and other fixed-income investments. Yet popular bond ETFs iShares Barclays TIPS Bond (NYSEMKT: TIP  ) and iShares Core Total US Bond (NYSEMKT: AGG  ) both yield just 2% to 2.5%. A longer-term approach requires some more aggressive investments.

As we saw yesterday, dividend investments can be smart. But focusing on value is also a good bet, because you still have time to ride out long periods of undervaluation. Tech stocks Intel (NASDAQ: INTC  ) , Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT  ) , and even Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL  ) are all great examples of stocks trading at very low multiples yet have an attractive combination of growth potential, dividend income, and stability. For Apple, future growth could make current multiples look absolutely ridiculous. Intel and Microsoft face different challenges from the decline of the PC, but with solid franchises that will be slow to decay even in a worst-case scenario, their income potential is highly valuable.

Idea 3: Consider a retirement trial run.
If you've worked nonstop for 30 years or more, retirement may seem like a dream. But if you don't know how you'll spend time and acclimate to the big changes involved, it can turn into a nightmare.

If your finances allow it, consider looking at phasing into retirement by cutting back on work hours or finding job-sharing arrangements. That way, you'll be able to evaluate what you really want to do with your time after you retire.

Idea 4: Plan out your retirement finances.
The best time to figure out how to handle Social Security and Medicare is before you retire. By understanding your benefits before you need them, you can pre-plan major decisions like when to take Social Security or timing your health-insurance needs with Medicare coverage. Especially if you're looking at early retirement, avoiding the high cost of health coverage is a key part of preparing to call it quits for your career.

Idea 5: Get rid of debt once and for all.
The last thing you need as you approach retirement is a big debt monkey on your back. If you've incurred credit card or other high-interest debt, get it paid down now while you still have your paycheck to help you. Otherwise, on a limited income, you may find yourself unable to get out of the hole you've dug for yourself.

Stay tuned
Be sure to check back later in the week for more advice for investors of all ages. Coming up next: advice for those in their 40s and early 50s to handle the challenges of balancing competing money needs.

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Is G&K Services Earning Enough for You?

Margins matter. The more G&K Services (Nasdaq: GK  ) keeps of each buck it earns in revenue, the more money it has to invest in growth, fund new strategic plans, or (gasp!) distribute to shareholders. Healthy margins often separate pretenders from the best stocks in the market. That's why we check up on margins at least once a quarter in this series. I'm looking for the absolute numbers, so I can compare them to current and potential competitors, and any trend that may tell me how strong G&K Services's competitive position could be.

Here's the current margin snapshot for G&K Services over the trailing 12 months: Gross margin is 30.7%, while operating margin is 8.5% and net margin is 3.5%.

Unfortunately, a look at the most recent numbers doesn't tell us much about where G&K Services has been, or where it's going. A company with rising gross and operating margins often fuels its growth by increasing demand for its products. If it sells more units while keeping costs in check, its profitability increases. Conversely, a company with gross margins that inch downward over time is often losing out to competition, and possibly engaging in a race to the bottom on prices. If it can't make up for this problem by cutting costs -- and most companies can't -- then both the business and its shares face a decidedly bleak outlook.

Of course, over the short term, the kind of economic shocks we recently experienced can drastically affect a company's profitability. That's why I like to look at five fiscal years' worth of margins, along with the results for the trailing 12 months, the last fiscal year, and last fiscal quarter (LFQ). You can't always reach a hard conclusion about your company's health, but you can better understand what to expect, and what to watch.

Here's the margin picture for G&K Services over the past few years.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Dollar amounts in millions. FY = fiscal year. TTM = trailing 12 months.

Because of seasonality in some businesses, the numbers for the last period on the right -- the TTM figures -- aren't always comparable to the FY results preceding them. To compare quarterly margins to their prior-year levels, consult this chart.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Dollar amounts in millions. FQ = fiscal quarter.

Here's how the stats break down:

• Over the past five years, gross margin peaked at 32.0% and averaged 30.7%. Operating margin peaked at 9.0% and averaged 7.5%. Net margin peaked at 4.6% and averaged 1.4%.
• TTM gross margin is 30.7%, about the same as the five-year average. TTM operating margin is 8.5%, 100 basis points better than the five-year average. TTM net margin is 3.5%, 210 basis points better than the five-year average.

With recent TTM operating margins exceeding historical averages, G&K Services looks like it is doing fine.

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Italy Vote Stirs Market Turmoil

A general election has left Italy with no clear winner. WSJ's Chris Emsden suggests that even a grand coalition of the major parties would prove unworkable, making another election more likely. Photo: Reuters

ROME�In a national election meant to push Italy further down a path of economic reform, voters delivered political gridlock that could once again rattle Europe's financial stability.

Markets fell in response to returns. Yields on 10-year Italian bonds jumped 0.45 percentage point in mid-morning trading to 4.81%, their highest level this year. Spanish yields were higher by nearly 0.2 percentage point, and bonds of Portugal and Greece were hit as well. Bond yields rise when their prices fall.

Top Stocks For 2/26/2013-4

Pinnacle Entertainment Inc. (NYSE:PNK) announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire River Downs Racetrack for $45 million, subject to approval from the Ohio State Racing Commission. Located in southeast Cincinnati, Ohio, River Downs is located directly off of Interstate 275 and adjacent to Riverbend Music Center, along the Ohio River. The proposed purchase, which will be funded from cash on hand, includes a total of approximately 155 acres of land, 35 of which are currently undeveloped. The transaction is anticipated to close by the end of the first quarter of 2011.

Pinnacle Entertainment, Inc. develops, owns, and operates casinos, and related hospitality and entertainment facilities in the United States and internationally. As of December 31, 2009, the company operated seven casino destinations in the United States, which include L�Auberge du Lac in Lake Charles, Louisiana; Boomtown New Orleans in New Orleans, Louisiana; Belterra Casino Resort near Vevay, Indiana; Boomtown Bossier City in Bossier City, Louisiana; Boomtown Reno near Reno, Nevada; and The President Casino near the Lumiere Place complex. It also operates Casino Magic Argentina located in Neuquen, Argentina; and various smaller casinos in the Patagonia region of Argentina. The company was formerly known as Hollywood Park, Inc. and changed its name to Pinnacle Entertainment, Inc. in February 2000. Pinnacle Entertainment was founded in 1935 and is based in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Power3 Medical Products, Inc. (OTC.BB:PWRM), a leading proteomics company focused on the development of innovative diagnostic tests in the fields of cancer and neurodegenerative diseases, announced that it delivered four poster presentations at the 2010 International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease (ICAD) in Honolulu, Hawaii. These presentations discussed NuroPro, Power3′s diagnostic test, and focused on Power3′s Alzheimer’s disease blood serum biomarkers, test and clinical validation trials.

“We are pleased that our blood tests specifically diagnose Alzheimer’s in patients, both pre- and post-treatment,” said Helen R. Park, MS, Chief Executive Officer of Power3, “and that our scientific collaborators, Dr. Marwan Sabbagh, Medical and Scientific Director of the Banner Sun Health Medical Research Institute, and Dr. Lourdes R. Bosquez, President of the Woodlands Behavioral Institute, Inc., presented along with us at the meeting in Hawaii.”

“We are within striking distance of realizing an Alzheimer’s clinical diagnostic tool which I hope will lead to a greater understanding of the disease and buoy the pace of future therapeutic interventions,” added Marwan Sabbagh MD, Medical and Scientific Director of Banner Sun Health Medical Research Institute.

Power3 recently filed several patent applications for its NuroPro technology that are currently pending. Power3 also has a world-wide exclusive license from the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. To date, Power3 has given 9 presentations on NuroPro at international scientific meetings in the United States, Europe and China, and has published 6 articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals on the subject. Power3 intends to publish these latest findings as well.

RailAmerica, Inc. (NYSE:RA) announced the addition of Donald D. Redfearn to its management team as Senior Vice President. Redfearn will oversee the human resources, information technology, real estate and capital spending areas of the company.Redfearn was formerly President of RailAmerica, Inc. (NYSE:RA – News), one of the world’s largest short line and regional railroad holding companies. He was with RailAmerica since its inception in 1986 and served as Executive Vice President and in various senior management positions until 2004, when he was named President. While at RailAmerica Redfearn was instrumental in growing the company from one railroad to the world’s largest short line railroad company with over 50 railroads and more than $500 million in revenue. In 2007, he retired from RailAmerica after completing the sale of the company for $1.2 billion. Redfearn also served as a director of RailAmerica from 1986 through 2007.

RailAmerica, Inc. engages in the ownership and operation of short line and regional freight railroads in North America. As of December 31, 2009, it operated a portfolio of 40 individual railroads with approximately 7,400 miles of track in 27 U.S. states and 3 Canadian provinces. The company provides rail freight transportation services for a range of products, such as farm and food products, lumber and forest products, paper and paper products, metals, chemicals, and coal products, as well as offers ancillary rail services. The company was incorporated in 1992 and is headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida.

American Video Teleconferencing Corp. (Pink Sheets:AVOT) is pleased to announce that it has hired a French speaking geologist to search the archives of the Quebec Department of Mines for Rare Earths showings not on a current computer file. The company believes the rare earths industry is where it wants to maintain a very strong focus and is looking to expand its holdings. As neither the Federal nor Quebec Governments have carried out any air borne surveys in this area, the company will seek a contractor to do an air borne Mag-EM radiometric survey. This survey will cover its present holdings and the immediate surrounding area looking for future acquisitions. We are pleased to be working in the Province of Quebec as it is rated the number one jurisdiction in the world to carry out mineral exploration. The Quebec Government gives a rebate up to 45% for property expenditures.

Presently the company is in the final stage of negotiations with Kondor Gold Pyt. in Australia.

The company will aggressively continue to search world-wide for opportunities in Precious, Base and Rare Earths metal projects.

Valley National Bancorp (NYSE:VLY) announced that a common stock cash dividend of $0.18 per share will be paid January 3, 2011 to shareholders of record on December 15, 2010. The $0.18 per share dividend is unchanged as compared to the previous quarterly cash dividend. The cash dividend should not be used as an indicator of future dividends to Valley’s stockholders.
Valley National Bancorp operates as the bank holding company for Valley National Bank that provides a range of commercial, retail, trust, and investment services. It offers various services, including acceptance of demand, savings, and time deposits; provision of commercial, real estate, and consumer loans; and provision of equipment leasing, personal and corporate trust, and pension and fiduciary services. The company�s Consumer Lending segment provides residential mortgages, home equity loans, and automobile loans. Valleys Commercial Lending segment provides floating rate and adjustable rate commercial and industrial loans, as well as fixed rate owner occupied and commercial real estate loans.