With interest rates remaining at historical lows, REIT investors have been nicely rewarded with growing share prices and healthy dividend yields. In some instances, especially in light of the recovering real estate market, REIT shares have risen year to date by as much as 20% or more.

While both the current and expected performance of most REITs has been positive, there is one REIT in particular that I feel could be a real winner in terms of longer-term income and growth due to its diversified portfolio and income-generating strategies. In this article, I will discuss why Two Harbors Investment (TWO) is a great fit for REIT buyers.

Although Two Harbors recently cut its dividend, the company still offers a nice yield of over 12%. Over the past 12 months, Two Harbor’s sales growth has increased by more than 400%, with income growth in excess of 250%. The company feels that this is due in large part to its diversified asset portfolio that consists of both agency and non-agency mortgage-backed securities, as well as the firm’s purchase of foreclosed single-family properties from big banks that are subsequently rented out for income generation.

Upon purchase of these homes, Two Harbors rolls the properties into an entity named Silver Bay Realty Trust. This trust has recently registered for its own IPO. Although Silver Bay is a new offering, it has an advantage when seeking financing from lenders in that it is owned by Two Harbors.

Two Harbors has a P/E ratio of 9, which is actually below that of the real estate industry overall of closer to 10, and substantially lower than the P/E ratio of 17.7 for the S&P 500 index. To continue reading, click here.

Developments made in medical science are coming at a faster pace in recent times. For patients, this is very beneficial, as a cure for thus far untreatable ailments may be close at hand, potentially saving thousands of lives. At the same time, this could provide a huge opportunity for investors. Which companies have the biggest potential to leap on new drug approvals, and what potential investment opportunities are out there?

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Theravance (THRX) recently completed a phase 3 program for LAMA/LABA (UMEC/VI), which is used to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). GlaxoSmithKline is on schedule to apply for regulatory approval for LAMA/LABA by 2013. If LAMA/LABA is approved, it will replace Advair, GlaxoSmithKline’s blockbuster drug, which brought in $8.1 billion in revenue in 2011. With total revenue of $20.02 billion in the second quarter, and total cash of $12.23 billion, GlaxoSmithKline is in a good position to push for approval of this drug. This could present a lucrative buying opportunity for investors. We will have to wait and see if LAMA/LABA is approved, but investors should watch closely for any new developments and buy opportunities.

Bapineuzumab, made by Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and Pfizer (PFE), is now showing new promise. The experimental drug had previously failed to halt mental decline in Alzheimer’s patients. But new results show the drug might work if given earlier on, before most of the damage and memory loss has occurred, which may not be possible to reverse. Dementia is a global condition, affecting nearly 35 million people worldwide. To continue reading, click here.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is in the news primarily for its hostile bid to take over Human Genome Sciences (HGSI) and secondly because of its work on skin cancer drugs.

Let’s look at the hostile takeover bid first. This refers to the ongoing story that GlaxoSmithKline is attempting to acquire Human Genome Sciences, a company that it has worked with in peace for many years up until now. The most recent development in this case is that Human Genome Science has decided to use a “poison pill” strategy to put the larger pharmaceutical company off. As one source puts it, the company has “adopted a “poison pill” shareholder rights plan to ward off unsolicited takeover bids for the biotech drug maker”. This will essentially dilute the holdings if anyone, or any company such as GlaxoSmithKline, tries to acquire fifteen or more percent of the company. This is quite a good move, but GlaxoSmithKline seems unperturbed by Human Genome Science’s reluctance to give in. In addition, Human Genome Science is recommending that its shareholders reject the offer form GlaxoSmithKline and they do not tender their shares in the company. Human Genome Science states that its reason for this recommendation is that the bid made by GlaxoSmithKline is inadequate and does not correspond with the true value of the company.

What has GlaxoSmithKline’s reaction been? Well, the company has no intention of withdrawing or adjusting its bid for Human Genome Sciences. It plans to follow its current course of action as the acquisition will serve it and its stockholders well.To continue reading, click here.

Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) is a well-known brand in the technology industry. Over the years, the company has managed to build a strong reputation in the global market with a diverse portfolio of products and services. In this analysis, I will discuss some of the most recent developments that will affect the company’s competitive advantages. The most prominent among these developments are acquisitions and divestment plans that the business has announced recently, formation of new partnerships, launch of new innovative products and introduction of aggressive market expansion strategies.

Hewlett-Packard has always targeted a greater market share with its diversified portfolio of innovative products and services. It has recently launched the HP 3PAR, a program that allows clients to boost returns on investment in server utilization by effectively doubling the performance of physical server virtual machines. This innovative new technology has tremendous commercial applications in the future as it promises to boost the capacity of virtual servers by two times.

Apart from this, the company remains as dedicated as ever to push for greater share of the business market. For this reason, Hewlett-Packard has recently unveiled its latest fleet of state-of-the-art high-tech business-oriented commercial computers that are specifically engineered to cater to designing, reliability, performance and security needs of businesses and end-users. This will significantly help Hewlett-Packard in widening its competitive moat in the global market for Ultrabooks.

Hewlett-Packard has assembled a temporary moat around its server and cloud computing businesses.To continue reading, click here.

Exxon Mobil (XOM) is a stalwart integrated oil company that offers very little risk to its investors. Exxon Mobil is the largest publicly owned oil company in the world, with stable earnings and a very consistent stock price that has remained between $67 to $87 over the past 52 weeks.

Currently at the year to date low of about $81, Exxon Mobil stock has stayed steady in the mid $80 range since the beginning of 2012. In the five months since January, investors have pushed Exxon shares against the apparent price ceiling of $87 no less than seven times. Along with the Standard & Poor’s assessment of low qualitative risk, Exxon Mobil deals out a healthy dividend rate of $2.28 per share. Given these factors, I believe Exxon Mobil has prepared itself for sustainable growth. Coupled with the nature of oil and gas prices as summer approaches, I think Exxon Mobil is a valuable stock to own.

Due to regulation from the US Environmental Protection Agency, oil companies like Exxon Mobil must use a special blend of gas for the summer season, putting a cap on vapor pressure in gasoline. Oil refineries often are forced to shut down at the beginning of the season so they can adjust the refinery to the new blend of gasoline they need to produce. This temporarily lowers the supply of oil, and thus gasoline produced by companies like Exxon Mobil. As driving vacation season comes with summer, the demand for gasoline increases in the United States and the final outcome is a rise in the price of gasoline.To continue reading, click here.

In an era when authenticity and complete transparency rule, Yahoo (YHOO) is failing miserably, and shareholders are not happy. The company is currently engaged in a battle for eyeballs with Google (GOOG) and a tussle for corporate control with the hedge fund Third Point. The hedge fund’s vocal leader, Daniel Loeb, has been on a tear lately as he asserts his company’s 5.8% ownership of Yahoo to empower change within the organization.

Loeb’s latest ammunition comes by way of recent findings that suggest that Yahoo’s CEO, Scott Thompson, grossly misrepresented himself in company documents that detail his educational background. In response, Yahoo has admitted that it may have misstated the educational background of its new CEO. Yahoo attributed the discrepancy to an “inadvertent error.” This news would barely make a ripple if Yahoo was on a tear, but that is not the case. If anything, Yahoo has been in a holding pattern trying to figure out its next move, and the stock is down a few percentage points this week while flirting with a dip below $15 per share. Certainly the company did not imagine its ideal next step as a PR rebuttal to cover its collective behinds.

In past weeks, Loeb was nothing more than a bully shooting spitballs through a straw at Yahoo, but armed with new data, Loeb’s little spitballs are now grenades. Citing falsified documents in which the current Yahoo CEO claimed educational accolades that were never achieved, Loeb’s voice of discontent is certainly louder than it’s ever been.To continue reading, click here.

Integrating television, video and music streaming, and web browsing has revolutionized how people receive and view their favorite TV shows, movies, music, video clips, photos, and more. And as people become more used to the convenience of accessing both television and the Internet on one device, the more they will demand it in the future. As a result, telecom companies like Windstream (WIN), Verizon (VZ), Comcast (CMCSA), AT&T (T), and Charter Communications (CHTR)have all had to adapt to meet customers’ changing needs.

Windstream’s Merge

In this article, I argue that Windstream’s new Merge service is a killer deal for frugal investors like me! In March 2012, Windstream introduced Merge, a high-speed Internet entertainment service that provides high speed Internet with access to free and paid Internet content. Customers can access paid movie and television streaming services like Netflix, Huluplus, and free services like music streaming from Pandora with a click of a button instead of having to visit the websites to sign in. This also allows people to view or listen to media from their television instead of crowding around a small computer or smartphone screen.

With Merge, customers can download movies, television shows, and other content found online directly to their television or computer. The company has also started producing its own web-only series, ‘On the Mark,’ which customers can download from both Facebook (FB) and Youtube. The show, an introspective look at pop culture and television, hosted by journalist Mark Steines, will air every other week for the next six months. To continue reading, click here.

I, like many investors and homeowners, was affected by the real estate market collapse that started in 2007. As a result of this real estate crisis, many publicly traded companies in the real estate industry saw their earnings and market cap evaporate, which drained the wealth of many private investors and investment institutions. However, looking forward long-term, I envision the real estate market recovering and creating lucrative investment opportunities once more. The following is an analysis of Annaly Capital Mangement (NLY), a stock in the REIT industry. Will this stock thrive looking forward?

Annaly Capital Management owns, manages and finances a portfolio of real estate investments. It has a market cap of $15.66 billion and is currently trading close to $16. The stock has increased about 4 percent since last October after declining 15 percent in late September after decreasing the dividend to $0.57 from $0.60 the previous quarter. Most recently, the stock has announced another dividend decrease for Q1 in 2012. This is a dividend cut of $0.02 from the previous quarter. The stock had no major fluctuations because most investors and analysts were expecting a higher cut in dividends, thus the $0.02 dividend cut is seen as good news. With a beta of 0.32 the stock is not very volatile, primarily due to its diversified investments.

Annaly Capital has $994 million in cash and short-term investments and $85.44 billion in short and long-term debt, with 99 percent of this debt being short-term.This implies management is funding day-to-day operations with short-term debt, which can be dangerous if there are serious fluctuations in revenue. To continue reading, click here.

General Mills (GIS) is listed in the Fortune 500 and has established itself as one of the largest multinational corporations in the world. The company has a wide portfolio of products and brands. It is also the market leader in a number of product categories. In this article, I will be analyzing the different indicators which suggest that this company would be a good option to invest in.

Even in the stock market, General Mills has been one of the best investment options. Performance indicators have shown that the company is doing quite well. This is one of the basic reasons why I have chosen this stock for my analysis. The stock has offered significant yields to its investors and is one of the safest options as well. The company is operating in an industry which has been growing steadily over the past few years. This has allowed General Mills to expand itself and explore new opportunities. They have penetrated new markets and developed new segments worldwide.

The stock is currently trading in the market at a price just above $38 per share. The price has been fluctuating but for now they are showing a steady increase. In the last 52 weeks, the stock has been trading at a price as low as $34 per share and as high as $41 per share. Market capitalization at this price is almost $25 billion while the average trading volume is close to $5 million. There are approximately 645 million shares outstanding in the market. To continue reading, click here.