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Email UpdatesIt is usually questionable if Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and its new Bing.com search engine is stealing from Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) or from Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) when it comes to gains in the share of internet search. Or maybe it was IAC/InteractiveCorp. (NASDAQ: IACI) and its Ask.com distant #4 search product. Hitwise is only one source which measures U.S. searches, but a reading of searches conducted in the four weeks ending Oct. 31, 2009 showed a gain for Bing. Hitwise showed that Bing is clearly taking more from Google and some from Yahoo!. Even Ask.com got a little lift this time. Hitwise gave the following data:
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Posts related to ‘Research’
Bing Captures More Search Share (MSFT, GOOG, YHOO, IACI)
Apple (AAPL) Has Huge Jump In Smartphone Share
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is coming very close to becoming the preferred smartphone in America, which would topple RIM (NASDAQ:RIMM) from the top spot. The new iPhone 3GS is giving the company startling momentum as it gains on the Blackberry.
New research from ChangeWave shows that RIM is still the share leader in the smartphone business with 40% of the market, but Apple has moved up to 30%. The numbers for the Blackberry maker are even worse going forward. Read More
The Twenty Companies That Wall St. Can Trust The Least
Wall St. likes financial statements that give it deep insights into a company’s operations, especially its liabilities. It likes boards that make sure shareholders get as complete a picture as possible of a firm’s balance sheet and details of its P&L, cash-flow, and other critical financial measurements.
24/7 Wall St. asked Audit Integrity to put together a list of companies traded on US exchanges with market caps of more than $3 billion that do particularly poorly in the areas of corporate governance, detailed disclosure of high-risk events including M&A and restructurings, revenue and expense recognition, and asset and liability valuation.
Based on the Audit Integrity model, 24/7 created a list of the twenty companies that Wall St. can trust the least. Among the companies that the analysis flagged are Altria (NYSE:MO), Chevron (NYSE:CVX), Credit Suisse (NYSE:CS), GE (NYSE:GE), Blackstone (NYSE:BX), Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT), Wells Fargo (NYSE:WMT), and Dow Chemical (NYSE:DOW)
The list:
US Healthcare System Wastes $800 Billion A Year
The Administration may not need to push a healthcare reform bill though Congress. It might be better off creating laws that would wring excess out of the current system. It would avoid risking hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayers money and would yield enough capital to help give insurance to the uninsured.
New data compiled by the healthcare analytics group at Thomson Reuters (NYSE:TRI) found that the “U.S. healthcare system wastes between $505 billion and $850 billion every year.” Read More
The Twenty Companies Wall St. Can Trust The Most
24/7 Wall St. asked Audit Integrity to screen companies with market caps of more than $3 billion to create a list of the firms that use the most transparent and conservative accounting programs and have ”best of class” corporate governance and management. This data is based on the The Audit Integrity Accounting and Governance Risk rating which is a forensic measure of the clarity and statistical reliability of a corporation’s financial reporting and governance practices. To create this data Audit Integrity applies over 100 accounting and governance metrics to a company’s publicly filed information.
After reviewing this data, 24/7 created a list of The Twenty Companies Wall St. Can Trust The Most. The firms are ranked based on their Accounting and Governance Risk scores.
The list represents companies that have practices which should be emulated by every public company that wishes to serve the needs of its shareholders by presenting accurate financial data and providing conservative management of shareholder’s investments.
The Twenty Companies Wall St. Can Trust The Most:
The 100 Hardest Working Brands In The World
There are a number of ways to rank brand values. One of the most important is the level at which a brand contributes to the market value of a public company.
24/7 Wall St. asked Corebrand, the brand research and consulting firm, to look at the top 100 brands based their contribution to market capitalizaton. Using this method, the hardest working brand was Hershey (NYSE:HSY), followed by Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) and Harley-Davidson (NYSE:HOG)
Corebrand described the process briefly to 24/7 Wall. St.
24/7 Wall St.: Corebard often refers to the brands on this list as the”hardest working brands”. How did you come to that description?
Corebrand: There are a lot of people measuring and examining the “strongest brands” or the “most valuable brands”. Our opinion is that examining one without the other is somewhat meaningless. How “strong” a brand is nice to know but not very relevant unless you understand how that strength benefits business. Similarly, “value” is little more than a measure of corporate size unless you understand the drivers of that value and how to influence it. By examining the strength of the brand and it’s contribution to total market value, we can help companies and their leadership manage that strength and value over time.
24/7 Wall St.: Is there any advantage or disadvantage to having a brand value be a very large percentage of market cap in the present and as an indication of a company’s future performance?
Corebrand: The brand will need to be in balance with the rest of the company’s assets. A company should strive to have it’s brand strong enough to fend off competitors or changing market conditions but not so strong that it becomes overly dependent on the brand as a single driver of value. If a company can achieve and maintain its appropriate maximum strength without becoming over-dependent, it will see greater returns in bull markets and retain greater value in bear markets.
The list: Read More
Starbucks (SBUX) Begins To Thrash McDonald’s (MCD) In Coffee Wars
McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) was supposed to crush Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) in the premium coffee business when the world’s largest restaurant chain introduced a line of premium java more than a year ago.
It turns out that McDonald’s impressive start as competition to Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts, and other specialty coffee retailers has begun to flag.
New research shows the momentum in terms of store traffic patterns has turned in Starbucks’ direction and it is likely that the trend will continue. Read More
S&P Quasi-Endorses GE’s NBC Universal Plans (GE, CMCSA)
Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services has reviewed the ramifications of reports about General Electric Co.’s (NYSE: GE) plans for NBC Universal. The ratings agency has said that a partial sale or IPO of NBC Universal would not adversely affect the AA+/Stable/A-1+ evaluation of GE’s “excellent business risk profile.” S&P had previously stated it would review the outlook or rating on GE if strategic shifts in all of GE’s portfolio of businesses jeopardized the S&P view.
GE owns 80% of NBC Universal and Vivendi S.A. controls the remaining 20%. Each November, Vivendi can offer GE notice of its intent to exercise its right to exit over the following year. This new data is on reports that GE and Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA) have been in discussions over forming a joint venture to take over NBC Universal ownership. This is also following indications from GE that an NBC Universal IPO is possible.
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Are CBS (CBS) And Sprint (S) At Risk For Bankruptcy?
Audit Integrity, a research firm, has come out with a list of the large American companies which are most likely to go bankrupt in the next year. The data behind the figures seem valid, but some of the companies on the list which include CBS (CBS), Sprint (S), AMD (AMD), and Sirius XM (SIRi) seem improbable candidates.
The corporate communications staffs of these companies and their outside public relation firms will tell their managements to keep quiet and not react. A reaction, they will argue, just makes it look like Audit Integrity knows what it is doing and that there is some validity to their analysis. Audit Integrity is probably counting on that. It will get a lot of exposure for the study and little ,if any, legitimate criticism.
Audit Integrity says its research services support risk management practices that help investors, insurers and others lower risk and improve performance with objective ratings and reports.
24/7 Wall St TV: A Real-Time 500 Largest Companies In America
There are a number of lists of the largest US public companies and the largest companies from overseas. These are published by several business magazines both in their print editions and online. These lists are not updates, so they are simply a static snapshot of the key statistics for these corporations frozen in time until the next year comes around. Click here to visit the new Real-Time 500 site.
The 100 Most Valuable Brands Of 2009?
Several consulting firms post annual figures for the world’s most valuable brands. The two best known are probably the Interbrand and BrandZ surveys. They are notably different, up until now at least. BrandZ includes a number of large brands from Asia. Interbrand does not.
24/7 Wall St. has put together a list of the most valuable brands of 2009 by looking at valuation calculations from a number of sources. Then a base valuation was taken from the 2008 Interbrand data to fix values for this year and changes from last.
Most methods take into account the future earnings of a brand for its parent company. This is fundamentally a guess particularly during a turbulent period in the global economy. Interbrand’s rule is that a brand most get at least a third of its revenue from outside its country-of-origin. That is arbitrary, particularly as it apply to brands in China.
24/7 Wall St. has made the assumption that the value of most brands have been hurt log-term by the deep recession. Forward earnings estimates for many of the firms on this list show that. Those brands which post value improvements show much more modest increases than they would be in a stable economy.
Looking at the Interbrand list from last year, it is fair to ask why firms like Nissan, Wal-Mart (WMT) and Red Bull are not present.
Because the brands on this list are taken from names on the Interbrand survey, we have not made a calculation about which companies may be new to their list in 2009 or which may drop off.
Public firms which are part of this ranking include (KO)(IBM)(MSFT)(GOOG)(GE)(NOK)(TM)(INTC)(MCD)(DIS)(HPQ)(AXP)(C)(HMC)(ORCL)(AAPL)(SNE)(PEP)(HBC)(NKE)(UPS)(FDX)(SAP)(DELL)(JPM)(GS)(KL)(EBAY)(SI)(F)(AIG)(AMZN)(CAT)(AVP)(RIMM)(GPS)(TIF)(BP)(SBUX)(JNJ)(MAR)(V)
The 100: Read More
The Lame Blame on Short-Termism
There is a very silly notion being brought to you by the Aspen Institute Business & Society Program’s Corporate Values Strategy Group and what is admittedly a rather impressive list of names joining it. It is a call to end “Short-Termism” in the financial markets. Imagine a long-term financial utopia where investors did not have to trouble themselves with the day in and day out wranglings of the stock market or the economy.
Imagine if quarterly earnings, monthly same-store-sales, quarterly or annual guidance, key turns in the demand cycle, interruptions or obsolescence of a business model and other issues were just able to be smoothed over. Now imagine investing in this sort of a climate. This idea sounds great on paper and probably looks great on economic models and charts that are the basis for the notion because it goes along with the current theme of thinking for the long-haul and doing what is best for everyone else. The problem is that this is the most silly and perhaps dangerous notion for the public to embrace. This is a path for investors large and small to get drummed, slapped, duped, discouraged and a few other things we decided not to print.
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Economists Make Their Case For Inflation
The latest poll by The National Association of Business Economists shows that 41% believe that the Fed’s actions will cause inflation during the next two years. The top reasons cited for concern were “lagged effects of policies now in effect”, “monetization of the debt” and “ineffective exit strategy.” Put another way, the Fed will not be able to get out of its own way as the economy recovers. Read More
Schaeffer’s Investment Research: Exaggeration At Its Finest
Schaeffer’s Investment Research of Cincinnati, run by Bernie Schaeffer, has been sending out e-mail promotions which are as clever as they are opaque. The solicitation is to join the Elite Trader service. Some of the statements in the e-mail are odd and incredible. Read More
US Car Quality Getting Better As Sales Disintegrate
The New York Times got ahold of an early version of the 2009 new vehicle study done by The University of Michigan Customer Satisfaction Index.
The paper reports that “in the rankings by brand, G.M.’s Cadillac tied for first place with its chief competitor, Lexus, while Buick and Lincoln-Mercury placed third and fourth, meaning that domestic brands accounted for three of the top four.” Read More
New Biotech Survey Says Sector Will Outperform
Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO.org) has conducted a survey of 80 investors, analysts, and venture capital executives with Thomson Reuters to preview their opinions of the biotech sector and expectations for 2009. The study was intended to improve communications between biotech executives and investors. There is a problem with the data because it is from December 2008 to January 2009. That was at least before the February and very early-March slump pushed markets into a free fall. Read More
Tracking The Value Of The World’s Major Brands
Several companies run annual brand valuations. It is a good business for advertising and marketing firms to be viewed as experts on brands. Brand values are based on the cash flow they create, and there are a number of ways to measure that. The mathematical parts of the formulas are relatively easy. The part that is hard, because it requires skilled forecasting, is what the reputation and value of a brand is likely to be three or four years from the date the values are set. It would have been hard half a decade ago to predict that AIG (AIG), the brand of the world’s largest insurance company, would be virtually worthless today, or that Facebook would be an extremely valuable brand. There is both art and science to determining the future of brands. Read More
Madden 2010 Sales To Fuel GameStop (GME)
Over the past week, the 24/7 Wall St./The Channel Checkers poll surveyed Gamestop and EB Games stores across the United States to track sales trends of gaming consoles and video games. We asked the following questions:
1. What is the best selling video game right now?
2. What is the best selling game platform?
3. What will be the next big game released over the next 3 months? Read More
Macy’s (M) sales seen improving–The 24/7 Wall St./The Channel Checkers Survey
Over the past week, the 24/7 Wall St./The Channel Checkers poll surveyed various Macy (M) stores to track sales and business levels in July. We asked the following questions:
1. How is business this year?
2. Do you have any excess inventory?
3. Do you think the economy is affecting business?
4. What is the most popular clothing brand? Read More
Predicting The Value Of The World’s Most Valuable Brands For 2009
Once a year, Interbrand publishes a list of the “Best Global Brands”. The 2008 list was released last September. The next list will probably be out in about two months.
The change in value is some of the top brands is predictable, at least based on the Interbrand calculations. The firm says its “methodology evaluates brand value in the same way any other corporate asset is valued—on the basis of how much it is likely to earn for the company in the future. Interbrand uses a combination of analysts’ projections, company financial documents, and its own qualitative and quantitative analysis to arrive at a net present value of those earnings.” While that formula cannot be entirely recreated, using the same rules, it is possible to look ahead at 2009 values. It is also worth noting that the worth of the top brands on the Interbrand list moves very little. Last year, Citigroup’s (C) valuation dropped only 14%. The average movement in the top twenty brands was in a range of +/-6%.
The Interbrand survey is also subject to “brand inflation”. Even though 2008 was a hard year for most companies, of the leading 100 brands, only eighteen dropped in value with a large number of these being financial services firms.
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