TipRanks

TipRanks, the first financial accountability engine, measures the performance of anyone giving investment advice online allowing investors to evaluate financial experts before following their recommendations.

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Daniel Goleman: Three Steps to Better Investing

From time to time, we bring outside perspectives to readers of the TipRanks Blog. These insights offer investors a point of view that we hope will deepen their knowledge. WeRead More...

Daniel Goleman: Three Steps to Better Investing Emotional Intelligence Gives Investors An Edge

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Here’s What Top Hedge Fund Managers Recommended at Sohn Investment Conference

Sitting in the audience at last week’s Sohn Investment Conference in Tel Aviv, we got to wondering just how the ideas being presented will turn out, looking at how theyRead More...

https://goo.gl/1Pqkii

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As investors seek sources of consistent income, they are turning dividend-paying stocks and using a dividend-capture strategy to make their picks. A dividend-capture approach involves buying a stock ahead ofRead More...

7 Strong Buys to Boost Your Dividend Portfolio

https://goo.gl/gn3GlK  

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Holiday Sales Forecasts Begin to Show in Analyst Retailer Ratings

Has the holiday shopping season begun? While store shelves may still be stocked with Halloween candy and Muzak hasn’t made the switch yet to Christmas tunes, the National Retail FederationRead More...

Analysts Factor Holiday Sales into Retailer Picks - Economy's Momentum Expected to Fuel Sales Growth

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Small-Cap Stocks Are on a Roll

It’s beginning to look like small-cap stocks are on a roll. Positive signs from the US economy may be behind the trend as small-cap companies are typically more focused onRead More...

Has Small Cap Season Arrived? 

Top Analysts See Economy Boost for Shares

https://goo.gl/UrsXQx

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What’s Behind Oppenheimer’s Top Analyst Success?

There must be something in the water in the equities research department at Oppenheimer. Seven of the firm’s research pros are ranked among TipRanks’ Top 25 Analysts as markets open Monday morning.Read More...

https://goo.gl/JQBHc0

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How Robo Advisors Measure Up

TipRanks takes a look at how some of the top Robo advisors are performing and realizes that they aren’t for everyone. read more

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Top 5 Performing Hedge Fund Managers You Should Know

Hedge funds have become increasingly popular over the past decade since they often have low correlations to traditional portfolios of stocks and bonds, thus adding diversification to any portfolio. Many hedge fund investment strategies aim to achieve a positive return regardless of whether markets are rising or falling. While searching for which hedge fund is the best to monitor, the average investor is overwhelmed by the amount of selections available and so making a decision of which hedge fund to follow can be confusing. Often, they track the portfolios of managers that receive the most public exposure, but does high exposure mean high returns? TipRanks recently tested this and the results were surprising.

What is a Hedge Fund Manager?

Hedge funds are similar to mutual funds in that both pool together investors’ money and create large portfolios that are valued on their net asset value, yet hedge funds can engage in trading activities that are often unavailable to mutual funds. This includes high risk leveraged positions for both long and short positions, or the use of high frequency trading and other aggressive investment practices. Furthermore, hedge funds invest in less traditional opportunities such as futures contracts or options. Any hedge fund managing over $100M is required to submit a 13F form to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) which lists their current holdings up to 45 days after each fiscal quarter. While most investors following fund managers only take the 13F forms into account, TipRanks also aggregated 13D and 13G forms (reports required by shareholders owning 5% or more of a company) to measure performance elements that are otherwise overlooked by other financial services that track hedge funds activity.

SEC Form 13F Example

And the top Hedge Funds to follow are...

While Warren Buffett, George Soros, and Carl Icahn are household names to many, there are lesser-known managers that yield higher market returns. TipRanks analyzed over 200 hedge funds that generated the highest annualized return based on their stock portfolio over the last three years, and discovered that the best managers were not necessarily the most well-known. Below is the full list:

Topping the list is Peter Kolchinsky who generated a +60.8% average return.

Ted Kang comes in second place for generating a +44.5% average return.

Next is Rehan Jaffer who generated a +39.9% average return.

Brad Gerstner is in fourth place for generating a +39.4% average return.

Lastly, William Duhamel generated a +33.9% average return.

Access the performance of over 200 Hedge Fund Managers

Performance is measured based on the hedge funds managers’ long positions as reported by 13F forms and 13D/13G forms. The measurements do not incorporate short positions nor positions that were opened and closed within the same quarter in cases where the hedge fund was not required to submit a 13D/13G form. TipRanks allows investors to review the hedge fund holdings from the most recent quarter and recent activity tracked via 13D and 13G forms. This includes the number of shares held, gains since the last quarter and the percent of stock in the hedge fund’s portfolio.  Follow the top 25 Hedge Fund Managers with the best portfolio returns to receive instant email notifications the moment a holdings form is filed to the SEC, giving the advantage of being first to act.

As the world’s first financial accountability engine, TipRanks helps investors make better decisions by providing them with an accurate performance, measurement, and average return rate of over 200 hedge fund managers covering over 5,000 stocks. Additionally, shareholders can search and access stock pages detailing the specific performance and recommendations of top Wall Street analysts, bloggers, and corporate insiders.

Click here to create your own TipRanks account and follow the top experts today!

To learn more about investing in hedge fund managers, click here.

Note: All data included in this piece is approximate and is derived from TipRanks' internal database using a Natural Language Processing  algorithm to detect ratings from reputable websites. TipRanks is not responsible for inaccuracies in the data as all figures are approximate. Do not duplicate, publish, modify or otherwise distribute the material on this site unless specifically authorized by TipRanks to do so.

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Credit: Rebateszone

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Who Knows Best – Fundamental or Technical Analysts?

Investing, when done correctly, can result in significant returns while bad investing decisions can result in disappointing losses. In order to generate high returns and buffer against loss, many investors make decisions based on recommendations by Wall Street analysts.

Our view at TipRanks is that as long as you follow the best performing analyst over time, the means of how the analysts reached his or her conclusions should not matter.

Yet investors often ask us, who performs better – Fundamental or Technical analysts?

Fundamental vs. Technical

Fundamental analysts rate stocks based on the company’s growth, earnings potential and other key metrics. The output is usually a rating in the form of a “Buy, Hold, Sell” and the expected price target for the following twelve months.

On the other hand, Technical analysts review the stock’s performance over time, trading volumes, and look for patterns that can predict the stock’s future behavior. This means that the company’s earnings reports, management or any other elements are completely irrelevant. The output would usually be a conditioned recommendation (i.e. Buy if stock reaches X, Sell when it reaches Y).

The Debate

The method by which an analyst reaches his or her conclusion provides a deeper insight into their rating. Thus, sparking the debate of which group of analysts perform better.

Professor Doron Avramov of Hebrew University researched this issue by examining the CNBC television show,Talking Numbers, in which every episode a Technical analyst and a Fundamental analyst debated if the chosen daily stock will go up or down.

                                     Source: http://www.cnbc.com

Professor Avramov sampled 1,000 conflicting recommendations and divided them into five categories: Strong Buy, Buy, Hold, Sell, and Strong Sell. Each recommendation was virtually executed and measured over a period of 180 days.

So who performs better?

Professor Avramov’s study revealed that Technical analysts significantly outperformed Fundamental analysts in this time frame. In fact, if investors had followed the Technical’s Strong Buy ratings they would have made a 7.92% profit, as opposed to a -0.44% loss had they listened to the Fundamental’s rating in the following 180 days.

Moreover, if short sellers were to follow the Technical’s Strong Sell recommendation, they would have made an 8.85% return compared to the Fundamental’s 2.33% rate.

Technical Analyst Returns –VS– Fundamental Analyst Returns

What does this mean?

Professor Avramov’s study was a short-term observation which examined analysts on a television show, thus not necessarily producing the best overall results since the participants had little time to conduct comprehensive research and analysis, which in the case of Fundamental analysts requires more time… much more time.

However, these findings are significant and clearly show that Technical analyses pose great value when it comes to short term investing.

With tens of thousands of financial experts – including professional analysts, undiscovered gurus that blog, specific industry experts and more – there is no real need to conduct your own research; why waste your time reading an earnings report that thousands of experts already interpreted? Why conduct a technical analysis, quant research or any other sort of methodological research, when you can already pick the best performing experts from each category and follow them?

Click here to create your own TipRanks account and follow the top experts today!

Short selling? Find out who are the 10 most Bearish firms on Wall Street by clicking here.

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The 10 Most Bearish Firms on Wall Street

Whether you are a new or experienced short seller, chances are you faced the conundrum of finding a reliable financial source for sell recommendations.

Wall Street firms rarely recommend selling shares of a stock; in fact, TipRanks found that for every Sell rating (excluding Neutral ratings), there are 7 Buy ratings. As more firms and analysts enter the playing field, reliability and accuracy become more critical factors in any investor’s decision making process.

While there are many bearish analysts that have been outperforming the markets year over year, we recently tested the firms from which the most bearish ratings came from. The results were surprising.

Our initial assumption was that smaller firms, which are less likely to be affiliated with publicly traded companies, would be more bearish for obvious reasons.

However, using our unique financial accountability engine to analyze Buy and Sell recommendations of analysts from over 300 firms dating back to January 2011, we discovered that these prominent firms executed the most bearish ratings.

So who are the most bearish firms on the market?

Here is a full analysis of the amount of Sell ratings and overall bearish percentage released by these firms:

Topping the list is Goldman Sachs which issued a total of 2,600 sell ratings, marking a 34% overall bearish sentiment.

Barclays comes in second place for issuing a total of 2,145 sell ratings, marking a 19% overall bearish sentiment.

Morgan Stanley is a close third as they issued a total of 2,115 sell ratings, marking a 31% overall bearish sentiment.

Next, is Merrill Lynch which issued a total of 2,085 sell ratings, marking a 33% overall bearish sentiment.

Credit Suisse is in fifth place for issuing a total of 1,852 sell ratings, marking an 18% overall bearish sentiment.

The sixth spot goes to JP Morgan for issuing a total of 1,593 sell ratings, marking a 14% overall bearish sentiment.

Citigroup comes in seventh as they issued a total of 1,374 sell ratings, marking a 16% overall bearish sentiment.

Next in order is UBS which issued a total of 1,193 sell ratings, marking a 15% overall bearish sentiment.

Jefferies is number nine for issuing a total of 1,051 sell ratings, marking a 7% overall bearish sentiment.

Lastly, Deutsche Bank issued a total of 929 sell ratings, marking a 5% overall bearish sentiment.

Breakdown of bear vs. bull distribution

Access the performance ranking of 9,000+ experts

As the world’s first financial accountability engine, TipRanks helps investors make better investment decisions by providing them with an accurate performance, measurement, and average return rate of over 9,000 financial experts covering 6,000 stocks.

To view bear and bull recommendations of TipRanks’ 5 Star financial experts, visit the Top 25 Center and sort through analysts, bloggers, corporate insiders, and hedge fund managers.

Click here to create your own TipRanks account and follow the top experts today!

Note: All data included in this piece is approximate and is derived from TipRanks’ internal database using a Natural Language Processing  algorithm to detect ratings from reputable websites. TipRanks is not responsible for inaccuracies in the data as all figures are approximate. Do not duplicate, publish, modify or otherwise distribute the material on this site unless specifically authorized by TipRanks to do so.

To learn more about short selling strategies, visit The BigShort by clicking here.  

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10 Top Financial Blogs You Should Be Following

If you’ve been investing over the last few years you’ve likely found yourself spending time on different Financial Blogs, listening to the opinions of different ‘experts’ on where you should be investing your money. Usually, these opinions are followed by persuasive arguments and charts. However, many investors have experienced losing money over a bad investment decision based on such content because who knows if this ‘expert’ can be trusted to give profitable advice?

The entire sphere of Financial Blogs has been rapidly growing over the last 15 years, starting with comments on leading financial news websites that turned into dedicated areas for contributors on leading business sites such as Forbes, MarketWatch, and CNBC. The industry grew, leading some websites to focus only on contributors who provide stock analyses. SeekingAlpha is the leader of this domain as they have produced the most content and reached the most users.

As the sphere of Financial Blogs rapidly grows with ‘expert’ newcomers sharing their recommendations and adding even more noise, how can investors see through the clutter of financial advice?

That’s why we built TipRanks – the world’s first financial accountability engine. By displaying the measured performance and average return of anyone who provides financial advice, we are helping investors worldwide.

In order to rank these websites, we calculated the annual return of each buy and sell stock recommendation published on over 30 Financial Blogs since 2009 and then measured the overall success rate of all the articles. Meaning, we looked at how many of all the buy and sell stock recommendations published on each website have generated positive returns over the following year. We then combined these two factors into a single ranking, weighed against the statistical significance of the number of ratings published on each site. The more significant the data is the higher/lower a blog’s score.

And the top financial blogs are…

After analyzing and measuring the performance of 50 leading financial blogs and over 600,000 articles, we found that the best performing blog in terms of return on advice was The Motley Fool with an average annual return of +7.68% on each buy/sell recommendation made by their bloggers since 2009. Out of all of Motley Fool’s buy/sell recommendation, 60.48% of them were successful (meaning that 60.48% of their recommendations generated positive returns in the following year). Coming in second is SeekingAlpha with a +6.43% annual return on all the buy/sell recommendations and a success rate of 57.94%. Rounding out the three is TheStreet with a +6.29% annual return and a 57.7% success rate. Closing the top 10 list is MarketWach Contributors whose advice generated a 2.49% annual return and a 50.91% success rate. Below is the full list:

Motley Fool comes in first with an average return of 7.88% with a success rate of 60.48%, weighed against 30,742 ratings published on the site.

Seeking Alpha is a close second with an average return of 6.43%, a success rate of making profitable calls of 57.94%, weighed against 80,262 buy or sell recommendations published on the site.

The Street, rounding out the top three, with an average annual return of 6.29%, a success rate of 57.70%, and 14,979 total buy and sell ratings.

MoneyShow is fourth with an admirable annual average return of 10.94% and an equally impressive success rate of 64.12%, but less statistically significant because the blog only published 1,321 buy or sell stock recommendations in the provided time frame.

GuruFocus comes in fifth with an average annual return of 4.93%, a success rate of 56.74%, weighed over 8,758 blogs.

InvestorPlace is sixth up with an average annual return of 3.76%, a success rate of 55.73%, all weighed across 9,738 buy and sell recommendations.

StreetAuthority is number seven with an average annual return of 7.16%, a success rate of 60.94%, but weighed against only 960 recommendations, reconciling for its seventh place ranking.

TopStockAnalysts with an average annual return of 5.73% and a success rate of 54.55%, weighed against 3,298 buy and sell recommendations.

Yahoo! Finance Contributors makes the cut with an average annual return of 1.83% on its buy and sell ratings and a success rate of 52.53%, weighed against 1,375 recommendations.

MarketWatch Contributors rounds out the top 10 is with an average annual return of 2.49%, a success rate of 50.91%, all weighed against 895 total ratings.

TipRanks always keeps track of the best professional analysts and financial bloggers, but, this research is different as we measured the overall performance of the websites themselves, and not of each contributor/blogger individually.

Create your own TipRanks account to follow the success of top financial experts with the highest success rate and average return. Start today by clicking here.

Note: All data included in this piece is approximate and is derived from TipRanks’ internal database using a Natural Language Processing algorithm to detect ratings from reputable websites. TipRanks is not responsible for inaccuracies in the data as all figures are approximate. Do not duplicate, publish, modify or otherwise distribute the material on this site unless specifically authorized by TipRanks to do so.

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On November 25th, the Food and Drug Administration announced new nutrition labeling laws that require all chain restaurants to “clearly and conspicuously “post calorie counts on menus. The law also applies to vending machines with more than 20 locations and is as far reaching as popcorn at movie theatres. Companies will have one year to comply with the new guidelines. Similar regulations have already been implanted in New York and California but will now be enforced throughout the country.

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Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) is an e-commerce company based in Seattle, Washington. As Black Friday rapidly approaches to kick off the holiday shopping season, Amazon is preparing with an array of different discounts and deals.

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Intuit, Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU), is a software company based in Mountain View, CA. Intuit is best known for TurboTax; a software that helps individuals file their own taxes. On November 20th, Intuit released financial results for the first quarter of the 2015 fiscal year. The report posted losses, however the losses were less than analyst predictions.

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Ackman’s Pershing Group Buys Stake in Zoetis

Zoetis, Inc. (NYSE: ZTS) is an animal health company that produces vaccines for pets and livestock. Based in Florham Park, New Jersey, the animal health company was once a subsidiary of Pfizer but became independent in February 2013. Bill Ackman, the philanthropic founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, bought an 8.5% stake in Zoetis for roughly $2 billion on November 11th. Additionally, Zoetis released their third quarter report on November 4th, topping analyst expectations.

Highlights from the Q3 report include a reported $0.41 earnings per share on an adjusted diluted basis, a 21% year-over-year increase. This figure beat the analyst consensus of $0.37 by $0.04. Revenue for the third quarter met the analyst estimate of $1.2 billion; a 10% year-over-year increase. CEO Juan Ramón Alaix attributed the performance to “13% operational revenue growth in our livestock products and continued discipline around our operating expenses.”

Ackman’s new stake in Zoetis sent share prices soaring after the deal on Tuesday. The transaction fueled speculations that Pershing, Ackman’s hedge fund, would use the new ownership power to pressure Zoetis to sell itself to a larger company. These speculations come on the tails of Ackman’s recent efforts to have Valeant Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: VRX) take over Allergan (NYSE: AGN) another company in which Ackman recently bought stake.

Shares of Zoetis opened at $43.90 on Wednesday, November 12th. The animal health company has a 1-year high of $44.13 and a 1-year low of $28.14. The daily moving average is $43.26 and the 50-day moving average is $37.34. The market cap for Zoetis is $21.37 billion and its P/E ratio is 38.07.

On November 12, Liav Abraham of Citigroup reiterated a Buy rating and raised the price target from $44 to $49. Abraham referred to Ackman’s recent acquisition noting, “We assume that Pershing is interested in advocating for a sale of ZTS, potentially to VRX if its bid for AGN falls through. Apart from VRX, we note that others, including Bayer, could be interested in acquiring the company. We note CFO Paul Herendeen’s commentary on last week’s earnings call, which focused on maximizing shareholder value, while not ruling out a potential sale of the company.” Abraham has an overall success rate of 88% recommending stocks with an average return of +36.8% per recommendation.

Separately on November 12th, Christopher Caponetti from Morgan Stanley received a Hold rating for ZTS. Caponetti has an 80% success rate recommending 5 stocks with an average return of +0.3% per recommendation.

On average, the top analyst consensus for Zoetis is Strong Buy.

To see more recommendations for Zoetis, visit TipRanks today!

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Gilead Sciences Releases Impressive Results for Hepatitis C Drug

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD) is a research-based biopharmaceutical company based in Foster City, California. Gilead develops treatments for life-threatening diseases, specifically focusing on therapies for HIV/AIDS, liver diseases, and cancers. The biopharmaceutical company released impressive test results for a hepatitis C drug on November 11th, just two weeks after they released a Q3 report that topped analysts’ expectations.

Gilead released third quarter earnings on October 28th. Total revenue for the third quarter was $6.04 billion, an impressive year-over-year increase from $2.78 billion. Earnings per share on a diluted basis were $1.67, also a large increase from $0.47 in the same quarter of last year.

Gilead in the News

On November 11th, Gilead Sciences released impressive test results for their newest hepatitis C drug, Harvoni. The study reported that 96% of a 500-person patient pool with advanced liver disease “sustained virologic response” from Havarti, meaning they were cured of the infection. Hepatitis C is a chronic disease that can be cured and affects 3.2 million Americans.

Harvoni was approved by the FDA and Health Canada in October 2014. Gilead touts the drug as the “first and only hepatitis C treatment to provide a complete regimen in a single tablet, taken orally once daily for eight, 12, or 24 weeks.” Gilead is working to ensure that everyone can afford access to Harvoni by partnering with seven generic pharmaceutical producers based in India. Providing generic versions of the drug will expand the market into 91 countries, which Gilead reports represents “more than half of the global hepatitis C-infected population.”

Merck & Company (NYSE: MRK), another American pharmaceutical company based in New Jersey, also developed a drug for hepatitis. The drug is a combination of existing medications and intended to be administered in a four week regimen. However, a study released on November 11th reported that the Merck drug was only successful in 39% of patients participating in the study.

Shares of Gilead Sciences opened at $107.50 on Tuesday, November 11th. The pharmaceutical company has a 1-year high of $116.83 and a 1-year low of $63.50. The daily moving average is $107.70 and it has a 50 day moving average of $106.41. The market cap for Gilead is $162.95 billion and its P/E ratio is 19.24.

A Financial Expert’s Opinion

On November 11th, Robyn Karnauskas of Deutsche Bank maintained a Buy rating on Gilead Sciences with a price target of $142. Karnauskas compared the hepatitis C drugs produced by both Gilead and Merck, noting that the sustained viral response was higher with Harvoni than it was in Merck’s drug. Karnauskas does “not think that [doctors] will be confident in Merck’s” drug. Consequently, she continued, “Gilead’s [Harvoni] will remain dominant LT in the difficult-to-treat patients. We model 55% mkt share LT in refractory patients, 20% for ABBV and 25% for other regimens including Merck’s.”

Karnauskas has rated Gilead Sciences 16 times with a success rate of 94% and an average return of +39.9% per Gilead recommendation.

Robyn Karnauskas’s Past Recommendations

Karnauskas has a history of rating pharmaceutical stocks such as Biogen Idec (NASDAQ: BIIB) and Aegerion (NASDAQ: AEGR), helping her earn an overall success rate of 75% with an average return of +14.8% per recommendation.

Karnauskas last rated Biogen Idec with a Buy on October 22nd when shares were $309.07. Now, shares are $324.59. Successful recommendations such as this has helped earned Karnauskas an 86% success rate recommending Biogen with an average return of +18.9% per recommendation.

However, Karnauskas rated Aegerion a Buy on February 26th when shares were $54.76. Now, shares are down to $21.56. She has rated the stock five times with a negative average return of -43.9%.

Conclusion

Gilead Sciences ran a very successful test with its new Harvoni drug for Hepatitis C. Karnauskas sees great potential, but do you trust her latest recommendation based on her history of financial advice?

To see more recommendations from Robyn Karnauskas, visit TIpRanks today!