Posts related to ‘Mutual Funds’

Nuveen: Florida Closed-End Muni Funds Roll Into National Funds (NIO, NPM, NEA)

Money ImageNuveen has been the largest player in single-state municipal bond closed-end and open-end bond funds for years and years.  If you look in Barron’s each week under closed-end mutual funds data to find premium/discount data or yield data on closed-end funds, you will see scores and scores of Nuveen single-state municipal bond funds in there.  But today came the announcement that four of these funds that are tied to the state of Florida have completed their mergers into national bond funds.  While this has been a developing situation in recent weeks, this could have implications for other such single-state municipal bond funds which investors seek for tax-free income.
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Posted on: October 19, 2009 – 10:37 am in Bonds, Mergers and Buy Outs, Mutual Funds, , ,

Whitman & Third Avenue Launch Focus Credit Fund (TFCVX, TFCIX, TAVFX)

Bull and Bear ImageIf you do not know M.J. Whitman or the Third Avenue Management Inc. family of mutual funds, then you are probably not a value investor.  Whitman and his team have been perhaps some of the deepest value investors for decades on Wall Street.  And now the fund group is launching a new fund called the Third Avenue Focused Credit Fund.   There will be two classes of shares: the investor class shares will trade under the ticker ‘TFCVX’ and the institutional class will trade under the ticker ‘TFCIX.’
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Posted on: August 31, 2009 – 10:29 am in Mutual Funds, Value Investing, , ,

Fidelity’s Top Portfolio Changes (BAC, WFC, GS, MS, JPM, AAPL, MSFT, CSCO, ORCL, XOM, CVX, PFE, ESRX, WYE, GE, SBUX)

money-stack-imageFidelity Management & Research Company, or FMR, was among the giants which released its quarterly holdings over the most recent days.  While it is always interesting to see which holdings are the top holdings, most traders look at the big portfolio changes to try to gain insight into the minds of fund managers. We looked through the top holdings valued at $1 billion or more solely for the Fidelity Management & Research Company unit and we looked for positions where the position changed by more than 10% up or down by measure of share count rather than by the dollar amount.

There were some serious additions in Q2 in the financial sector to its portfolios.  The tech sector saw some mixed changes, while the drug and consumer changes looked lower.  There was a surprise cut in a key conglomerate and a huge add to one of the Battlestar Galactica coffee stocks.

Of the larger changes to its top holdings in financial stocks, FMR’s major large changes were all additional stakes being taken.  WELLS FARGO & CO (NYSE: WFC) was listed as $6.05 billion via 249.45 million shares, a gain of roughly 36 million shares. J.P. MORGAN CHASE & CO INC. (NYSE: JPM) was worth $5.44 billion from a stake of almost 159.6 million shares, a gain of over 7.1 million shares. BANK OF AMERICA CORP. (NYSE: BAC) was listed as $4.17 billion via a stake of 315.9 million shares, but that is effectively a doubling in size of shares from its Q1 reporting.  GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP INC. (NYSE: GS) was listed as a $3.44 billion stake via 23.35 million shares, a gain of roughly 7 million shares of stock. MORGAN STANLEY (NYSE: MS) was a stake worth some $2.5 billion via some 87.8 million shares, also more than double its previous shares listed.

APPLE INC. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is one of its top few holdings at $5.96 billion, and this was a gain of more than 10% to 4,59 million shares. MICROSOFT CORP. (NASDAQ: MSFT) was a huge gain by almost one-third of its stake to some 163 million shares of stock worth a reported $3.87 billion. ORACLE CORP. (NASDAQ: ORCL) was listed as being worth some $2.79 billion via 130.3 million shares, a gain of about 15.3 million shares.  IBM (IBM) was worth $1.00 billion via 9.62 million shares, but this is after a drop of roughly 4.3 million shares.
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Posted on: August 17, 2009 – 4:58 pm in Banking, Drug companies, Financial Stocks, Insider Activity, Mutual Funds, Oil & Gas, Technology Companies, Telecom, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

GAMCO, Gabelli, Files To Raise Cash (GBL)

money-stack-imageIt was not that long ago that GAMCO INVESTORS INC. saw its credit rating hurt by an S&P downgrade, sort of.  S&P put the parent of Gabelli Funds credit rating outlook at Negative. And today, we just got an SEC Filing showing that GAMCO was filing to sell up to $400 million in securities.
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Posted on: July 27, 2009 – 2:06 pm in Activist Investor, Mutual Funds, Secondary Offering,

The Death of the Carbon Fund ETF (ASO)

Carbon Emission ImageThere are ETF and ETN products for just about everything.  Equities, commodities, and more.  This is even one for “Eu Carbon Allowances,” but not for long.  XShares Advisors LLC has determined to liquidate its AirShares EU Carbon Allowances Fund (NYSE: ASO).  This held much promise for the green investors and for those investors who might have needed some exposure to carbon offsets.  Unfortunately, that promise never took off in trading volume.
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Posted on: July 24, 2009 – 9:40 am in ETF, Green Biz, Mutual Funds,

Quantifying Triple Leverage ETF Performance vs. Target Index (FAS, FAZ, BGU, BGZ, ERX, ERY)

Burning Money PicMoney Stack ImageDirexion has issued its semi-annual report for its triple leverage ETF holders and there are some interesting revelations here.  While there are many others covered, we wanted to demonstrate some of the differences among the Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3X Shares (NYSE: FAS), Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (NYSE: FAZ), Direxion Daily Large Cap Bull 3X Shares (NYSE: BGU), Direxion Daily Large Cap Bear 3X Shares (NYSE: BGZ), Direxion Daily Energy Bull 3X Shares (NYSE: ERX), and the Direxion Daily Energy Bear 3X Shares (NYSE: ERY).
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Posted on: July 7, 2009 – 10:04 am in ETF, Index, Mutual Funds, Stock Splits, Trading Alert, , , , , ,

Ken Heebner Endorses Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley (CGMFX, GS, MS)

Goldman Sachs LogoMorgan Stanley LogoKen Heebner of CGM Funds is often a guest on CNBC after the FOMC decision on rates.  His sphere of great influence has withered as the CGM Focus Fund (CGMFX) has been hammered.  Last year the fund’s price was briefly at $60.00 and now the fund is around $24.00.  But Heebner is still followed by many traders and investors and he did give two stocks he likes.  He said Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) would be the beneficiaries of the consolidation of brokerage firms.

These two firms are no longer TARP firms, so they are able to pay what they want and what they feel they should to recruit talent as it comes available.  Unfortunately, there were no great revelations here today.

Jon C. Ogg

Posted on: June 24, 2009 – 1:43 pm in Brokerage Firms, Financial Stocks, Mutual Funds, , ,

Russell Rebalance Included Many Cult Stocks (CBOU, DDRX, OPWV, STEM, UBET)

money-stack-imageThere are some interesting cult stocks which have recovered so much that they are being added into the Russell 3000 Index when the index gets rebalanced and reconstituted at the end of this month.  Some of these are new entirely and some of these have been booted off of the Russell 3000 Index before.  We have given some  detailed color and insight on the following cult stocks: Carribou Coffee Company (NASDAQ: CBOU), Diedrich Coffee Inc. (NASDAQ: DDRX), Openwave Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: OPWV), StemCells Inc. (NASDAQ: STEM), and Youbet.com Inc. (UBET).
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Posted on: June 19, 2009 – 11:26 am in Cult Stock, Index, Mutual Funds, Trading Alert, , , , ,

California Muni Bond Funds Defy Hangman (AB, BLK, EV, MS, AKP, BCK, RAA, BFZ, BCL, BJZ, MUC, CEV, EVM, CCA, IIC, IQC, ICS, NUC, NVX, NAC, NZH, NXC, PZC, PCK)

Burning Money PicIt seems that even the Governator is having a hard time saving California, and many are blaming him for the state’s ballooning budget deficit.  The company is facing billions in deficits and the headlines around the web put the state only weeks away from a financial meltdown.  The state entered another moratorium for foreclosures, yet ask anyone from outside of the state if they think property has yet to get dirt cheap there.  There are probably 20 or so single-state closed-end municipal bond funds that investors own.  These come from AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE: AB), BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE: BLK), Eaton Vance Corp. (NYSE: EV), Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), Nuveen, and PIMCO.  Interestingly enough, most of these municipal bond funds are up on the day.  This is also not the full list in the entirety of the California single-state muni funds and does not include the open-ended funds:
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Posted on: June 16, 2009 – 12:00 pm in Bonds, Dividend, Mutual Funds, Politics, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Did Bill Gross Short Sell Stocks & Bonds Via U.S. “AAA” Rating Comments?

Burning Money PicThe S&P Credit rating change of “negative” from “Stable” for  The United Kingdom may not matter to most Americans, but the implications are there for the United States.  England losing its “AAA” rating would be a catastrophe for the United States.  We share much more than the same language, as the world thinks of England as having perhaps the highest sovereign rating behind the U.S.  And today we had PIMCO’s esteemed Bill Gross hinting at the notion of a debt rating downgrade in the U.S. down the road.

It is easy to add panic to the fire when you get an actual downgrade as we saw today from S&P on the U.K.  Technically, that is just a bias downgrade, but that is still enough.  The notion that someone with the clout of Bill Gross bringing this risk to light is troubling for investors who have been preparing for the next wave of the economy and credit to be better rather than worse.  But technically, this is not a new notion at all.  Stocks have remained very weak and long-dated 10-Year and 30-Year Treasuries have seen yields rise 15 basis points to 3.36% and 15 basis points to 4.31%, respectively.
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Posted on: May 21, 2009 – 2:07 pm in Analyst Calls, Bonds, Economy, International Markets, Mutual Funds

India Election Winners By ETF & Shares (PIN, EPI, IIF, IFN, INP, INFY, IBN, REDF, SAY, SLT, TTM, WIT)

India MapIt is rare that you see an election have this large of an impact, but the Indian stock market surged on the new election results.  The Congress Party won a decisive victory in India and this sent Indian stocks up 17% on average.  The move was so large that the Bombay Stock Exchange had to close after already seeing one halt.  This had a huge impact on stocks, which you can see reflected in the share prices in the high pre-market indications of the major ETF’s, closed-end funds, and active ADR’s listed below.

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Posted on: May 18, 2009 – 8:19 am in ADR, ETF, Emerging Markets, Index, Mutual Funds, Politics, Trading Alert, , , , , , , , , , ,

Buffett & Berkshire Hathaway Q1-2009 Holdings A to F (BRK-A, AXP, BAC, BNI, KMX, KO, CMCSA, CDCO, COP, CEG, COST, ETN)

Buffett ImageWe have just gotten the Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A)(BRK-B) holdings for the end of Q1-2009.  The cut off date here was March 31, 2009 and there are some changes that have been seen here from the e3nd of Q4.  We have broken these down into 3 groups of ‘A to F’ and  ‘G to O’ and ‘P to Z’ so these fit on one page easier.  Here is the list ‘A ot F.’

  • American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) over 151.6 million shares, same as  before.
  • Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) 5 million shares; same as last quarter.
  • Burlington Northern Santa Fe (NYSE: BNI) 76.77 million shares; HIGHER than 70.089 million shares of last quarter.
  • Carmax Inc. (NYSE: KMX) 12 million shares; LOWER than the 17.63 million and that is two straight quarters of declines.
  • Coca Cola (NYSE: KO) right at 200 million shares, still same as before.
  • Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) 12 million shares, same as before.
  • Comdisco Holdings (NASDAQ: CDCO) roughly 1.5 million shares, same as before.
  • ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) is really lower than the 71.228 million reported as this has been used for cutting taxes, and we already know that the number is lower than what the filing says.
  • Constellation Energy Group (NYSE: CEG) was just updated this week so the number is actually about 12.4 million rather than what the filing shows as being 14.828 million shares.
  • Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ: COST) 5.254 million shares, same as before.
  • Eaton Corp. (NYSE: ETN) 3.2 million shares; looks like new holding but may have been missed before.

Here is the full list of Buffett holdings “G to O”

Here is the full list of Buffett holdings “P to Z”

Jon C. Ogg
May 15, 2009

Posted on: May 15, 2009 – 4:06 pm in Activist Investor, Banking, Buffett, Buffett Holdings, Conglomerates, Insider Activity, Mutual Funds, Value Investing, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Buffett & Berkshire Hathaway Disclose Holdings G to O (BRK-A, GCI, GE, GSK, HD, IR, IRM, JNJ, KFT, LOW, MTB, MCO, NLC, NKE, NSC, NRG)

Buffett ImageThe first quarter of 2009 Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A)(BRK-B) holdings are now out for the cut off date here of March 31, 2009.  There are some changes from the end of Q4.  We have broken these down into 3 groups A to F, G to O, and P to Z so these fit on one page easier.  Here is the list ‘G to O.’

  • Gannett Co. (NYSE: GCI) 3.447 million shares, the same as before.
  • General Electric Corp. (NYSE: GE) 7.777 million shares is the same as before, but does not include the 10% preferred from last year.
  • GlaxoSmithkline (NYSE: GSK) 1.51 million shares, same as before.
  • Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD) 3.7 million shares; same as before.
  • Ingersoll-Rand (NYSE: IR) 7.78 million, same as last quarter.
  • Iron Mountain (NYSE: IRM) 3.3722 million shares, same as before.
  • Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) about 32.5 million, ABOVE the prior 28.6 million shares but still down from the 62 million last year.
  • Kraft Foods (NYSE: KFT) over 138 million; looks roughly the same as before.
  • Lowe’s Companies (NYSE: LOW) 6.5 million shares, same as before.
  • M&T Bank Corp. (NYSE: MTB) 6.71 million shares, same as before.
  • Moody’s (NYSE: MCO) 48 million shares, same as before.
  • Nalco Holding (NYSE: NLC) 9.0 million shares; ABOVE our report of 8.730 million last quarter.
  • Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE) 7.641 million shares, same as before.
  • Norfolk Southern (NYSE: NSC) 1.933 million shares, same as before.
  • NRG Energy (NYSE: NRG) 7.2 million, same as before.

Here is the full list of Buffett holdings “A to F”

Here is the full list of Buffett holdings “P to Z”

Jon C. Ogg
May 15, 2009

Posted on: May 15, 2009 – 4:04 pm in Activist Investor, Buffett, Buffett Holdings, Conglomerates, Insider Activity, Mutual Funds, Value Investing, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Buffett & Berkshire Hathaway Q1-2009 Holdings P to Z (BRK-A, PG, SNY, STI, TMK, USB, USG, UNH, UNP, UPS, WBC, WMT, WPO, WFC, WLP, WSC)

Buffett ImageWarren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A)(BRK-B) holdings for the first quarter of 2009 are now out for the cut off date here of March 31, 2009.  There are some changes from the end of Q4 here in banking and here is the list of stocks alphabetically ‘P to Z.’

  • Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) 96.3 million, same as before.
  • Sanofi Aventis (NYSE: SNY) more than 3.9 million shares, looks same as before.
  • Sun Trust Bank (NYSE: STI) more than 3.2 million shares, same as before.
  • Torchmark Corp. (NYSE: TMK) roughly 2.82 million, same as before.
  • US Bancorp (NYSE: USB) roughly 69 million; ABOVE last quarter’s 67.6 million.
  • USG Corp. (NYSE: USG) 17.072 million shares, same as before.
  • United Health Group (NYSE: UNH) 4.5 million; down from over 6 million.
  • Union Pacific Corp. (NYSE: UNP) 9.55 million shares, above our 8.9 million noted before.
  • United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS) 1.429 million shares, same as before.
  • WABCO Holdings (NYSE: WBC) 2.7 million shares, same as before.
  • Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) over 19.9 million shares, same as before.
  • Washington Post (NYSE: WPO) over 1.72 million shares, same as before.
  • Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) over 302 million; ABOVE the 290+ million shares the quarter before.
  • Wellpoint Inc. (NYSE: WLP) 4.7773 million shares, same as before.
  • Wesco Financial Corp. (NYSE: WSC) 5.7 million shares, same as before.

Here is the full list of Buffett holdings “A to F”
Here is the full list of Buffett holdings “G to O”

Jon C. Ogg
May 15, 2009

Posted on: May 15, 2009 – 4:02 pm in Activist Investor, Banking, Buffett, Buffett Holdings, Conglomerates, Insider Activity, Mutual Funds, Value Investing, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

T. Boone Pickens & BP Updated Stock Holdings (ANR, APC, COG, CHK, CNX, DVN, FLR, FWLT, HAL, MEE, OXY, STR, SLB, SU, RIG, WFT)

Pickens PicThis morning we got to see the new equity holdings of T. Boone Pickens, via his BP Capital Management, L.P.,  as of March 31, 2009.  Some of the higher stakes look to be in Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE: CHK), Devon Energy Corporation (NYSE: DVN), Suncor Energy Inc. (NYSE: SU), and Transocean Ltd. (NYSE: RIG).  Here is the full list of holdings for Pickens’ BP Capital with the implied value as of the reporting dat of March 31:

Posted on: May 15, 2009 – 11:37 am in Activist Investor, Insider Activity, Mutual Funds, Oil & Gas, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

ETF Watch: What Happened In iShares MSCI Taiwan Index? (EWT, TWN, TFC, FXI)

money-stack-image56Today was one of the strangest days ever in the iShares MSCI Taiwan Index (NYSE: EWT) ETF.  In fact, you rarely ever see such trading action as we saw today in any ETF that tracks a foreign market.  At 3:25 PM EST we saw a headline that shares of the ETF were hated, pending a dissemination.

This looks like it was on reactions to China taking more steps to strengthen the ties between the countries.  China has agreed to allow Taiwan to participate in the WHO ruling body and announced a large investment in the country according to the WSJ.
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Posted on: April 29, 2009 – 4:01 pm in ADR, China, ETF, Mutual Funds, , , ,

Nuveen Launches 4 Closed-End Muni Funds (NCB, NJV, NYV, NPN)

money-stack-image49Nuveen Investments has completed the initial public offering of four new state-specific closed-end funds for municipal bind investors. The funds will begin trading on the NYSE Amex today and the total funds raised came to about $135 million in proceeds.  These funds are broken down as follows:

  • Nuveen California Municipal Value Fund 2 (NCB) for $50 million,
  • Nuveen New Jersey Municipal Value Fund (NJV) for $25.1 million,
  • Nuveen New York Municipal Value Fund 2 (NYV) for $40.4 million,
  • Nuveen Pennsylvania Municipal Value Fund (NPN) for $19 million.

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Posted on: April 28, 2009 – 7:44 am in Bonds, Brokerage Firms, Dividend, IPOs, Mutual Funds, , , ,

If Citigroup Gets Back Over $5.00….

pandit-citi-imageCitigroup, Inc. (NYSE: C) was believed by many to be on the verge of death just six short weeks ago.  But alas, the shorting and the selling doesn’t go on forever even if some feel this latest move is not going to hold.  There had been an ongoing question at one point earlier this year and even in November 2008 about what would happen if Citi shares fell under the $5.00 threshold based upon the marginability of the stock and the ability for many large mutual funds to hold the stock at that point.  Citi even got as low as $0.97.  But now we have a monster rally in the financial stocks, and suddenly there is a completely different question… What happens if and when Citi breaks over $5.00?

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Posted on: April 14, 2009 – 9:47 am in Banking, Financial Stocks, Mutual Funds, Technical Analysis, Trading Alert,

Investors Taking the Cuba Bet (CUBA)

cuba-mapHow long has the U.S. been at odds with Cuba?  For many of us, the answer is “Our entire lifetime.”  And now things may start be finally on track to be turning.  A headline came across the Broad Tape this morning indicating that the Obama administration is set to lift some travel and money restrictions that have been in place against this island nation for decades. It seems hard to imagine that relations will ever be normal as long as anyone named Castro is in charge of the country, but the criteria for ‘normal’ and the criteria for `good news’ seems suddenly very different in today’s world.  We won’t bother you with a historic dissertation nor will we engage in all of the political and personal issues that have affected many in this regard.  But there is an investor angle here that traders have used as their single US-traded vehicle to invest in the future of a US-Cuba normalization: the Herzfeld Caribbean Basin Fund Inc. (NASDAQ: CUBA).
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Posted on: April 13, 2009 – 11:18 am in ADR, ETF, Emerging Markets, Mutual Funds, Politics, Trading Alert,

S&P Cuts Ireland; Financial Potato Famine (IRE, AIB, IRL, ELN)

burning-money-pic39It is not very frequent that you see an English-speaking country take a sovereign credit ratings agency downgrade.  That would  indicate the government is one step farther away from being able to repay its debt.  It has happened in Eastern Europe and selectively in the European Union, but today a sovereign credit rating cut from Standard & Poor’s made its way to Ireland.
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Posted on: March 30, 2009 – 12:12 pm in ADR, Analyst Calls, Banking, Bonds, International Markets, Mutual Funds, , , ,