Tobacco

Altria Group (NYSE: MO) is seeing some volatility buying this morning. The April 20 puts are seeing interest with 2500 contracts trading versus an open interest of 1970. Altria currently pays an annual dividend of $1.40, or 6.90%. Shares are lower by $0.11, or 0.53%, to $20.54 in late-morning...

Lorillard (NYSE: LO), a manufacturer of cigarettes in the U.S., is receiving what looks to be a bullish options trade this morning. The April $80 calls were traded 12,500 times a short while ago for $0.40. At that time the bid ask spread on the option was roughly $0.35-0.42, so it is likely that...

“Everybody loves the romance of an IPO — a company going public with the potential to deliver huge profits to those investors on the ground floor. But the reality of initial public offerings are very different than the storybook version some traders believe. Trying to research these tiny upstarts...

Allscripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions, Inc. (MDRX) recently entered into an agreement with a new client, Lake Region Healthcare, whereby the latter has selected Allscripts’ Electronic Health Record (EHR) and Practice Management (PM) solutions. Lake Region Healthcare will deploy EHR and PM to...

“Stocks delivered nicely in 2009, with the S&P 500 ETF (NYSE:SPY) shooting up an impressive 23.5% and emerging markets were even more impressive. Even bond investors in high yield and junk debt performed admirably throughout the year. The real question now, is what will 2010 hold for investors...

Below are the top consumer goods stocks on the NYSE in terms of net income. Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE: PG) had $11.33 billion in net income in the latest quarter. PG’s trailing-twelve-month revenues amount to $79.12 billion. Read more about this company here. Altria Group Inc (NYSE: MO)...

Here is our latest update on the stock trading technique called 'Buying Dividends'. This is the process of buying stocks before the ex dividend date and selling the stock shortly after the ex date at about the same price, yet still being entitled to the dividend. This technique generally works only...

Now that Forbes has announced that Carlos Slim Helu has become the richest man in the world, investors are looking at the stocks that he owns and is connected with. Here are the primary companies that Slim is associated with. Approximately one half of the shares of Teléfonos de Mexico (TMX), which...

For a pdf of this report, follow this link: Simple Quantitative Overview of Goldman Sach's VIP List. An article by the contributor "Market Folly" on Goldman Sach's "VIP List" caught our attention on Seeking Alpha. What better way to test our simple quantitative model against a list of 50 stocks...

US companies are deleveraging their financial structure. According to a report released by Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), the companies have increased their cash balance to approximately 30% of their debt in the fourth quarter. The figure stood at 25% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley (MS) has based...

Today is going to be Goldman Sachs (GS) day at FMMF - from their nearly perfect forecasting of monthly labor data (magically adjusting their figures 24 hours before it is released each month to "hit it on the nail"), to their new foray into buying warehouses so they can corner obtain more...