"There are software limitations with the current system that we want to break through so we can offer more capability," Joe Hinrichs, Ford president of the Americas, said at the NADA/J.D. Power Automotive Forum, prelude to the New York Auto Show. "Like anything with technology, there is a lot of evolution in capability, speed, memory, all kinds of things."
Ford's customer satisfaction scores have been taking big hits since MyFord Touch was introduced four years ago.
In February, Ford ended a partnership with Microsoft that created the smartphone-like system and agreed to work with unit to refine software underlying Ford's Sync infotainment system. Sync's next generation is expected to enable people to control their smartphones and other devices by voice command.
Best Stocks To Buy For 2015: Sabre Corp (SABR)
Sabre Corporation, incorporated on December 11, 2006, is a technology solutions provider to the global travel and tourism industry.The Company provides software and services to a range of travel suppliers and travel buyers. The Company through its Travel Network business, processes hundreds of millions of transactions annually, connecting travel suppliers, including airlines, hotels, car rental brands, rail carriers, cruise lines and tour operators, with travel buyers in a comprehensive travel marketplace. The Company operates through three business segments: Travel Network, Airline and Hospitality Solutions and Travelocity. The Company offers global distribution of travel content from approximately 125,000 travel suppliers to approximately 400,000 online and offline travel agents. To those agents, it offers a platform to shop, price, book and ticket comprehensive travel content in a transparent workflow.
The Company through its airline solutions business (Airline Solutions) and hospitality solutions business (Hospitality Solutions and, together with Airline Solutions, Airline and Hospitality Solutions) offer travel suppliers a suite of software solutions, ranging from airline and hotel reservations systems to high-value marketing and operations solutions, such as planning airline crew schedules, re-accommodating passengers during irregular flight operations and managing day-to-day hotel operations. These solutions allow its customers to market, distribute and sell their products more efficiently, manage their core operations, and deliver an enhanced travel experience. Through its complementary Travel Network and Airline and Hospitality Solutions businesses, it offers the broadest, end-to-end portfolio of technology solutions to the travel industry.
The Company�� portfolio of technology solutions has enabled them to become the technology provider in the travel industry. The Company is the global distribution systems (GDSs) provider in North America and also in higher growt! h markets such as Latin America and Asia Pacific (APAC). The Company has a portfolio of airline marketing and operations products across the solutions that it provides. In addition, the Company operates Travelocity, one of the recognizable brands in the online consumer travel e-commerce industry, which provides them with business insights into its broader customer base. Through its solutions, which span the breadth of the travel ecosystem, the Company has developed deep domain expertise. Its investment in Airline and Hospitality Solutions offerings has allowed to create a broad portfolio of value-added products for its travel supplier customers, ranging from reservations platforms to operations solutions typically delivered via scalable and flexible software-as-a-service (SaaS) and hosted platforms.
The Company enabled airlines to sell ancillary products like premium seats through the GDS, the first third-party provider to automate passenger reaccommodation during operational disruptions and the first GDS to launch a business-to-business (B2B) app marketplace for its travel agency customers that allows them to customize and augment its Travel Network platform. The Company�� SaaS and hosted technology platforms allows them to serve its customers primarily through a recurring, transaction-based revenue model based primarily on travel events such as air segments booked, passengers boarded (PBs) or other relevant metrics.
Travel Network
Travel Network is a global B2B travel marketplace and consists primarily of its GDS and integrates with its GDS to add value for travel suppliers and travel buyers. The Company�� GDS offers content from a broad array of travel suppliers, including approximately 400 airlines, 125,000 hotel properties, 30 car rental brands, 50 rail carriers, 16 cruise lines and 200 tour operators, to tens of thousands of travel buyers, including online and offline travel agencies, TMCs and corporate travel departments.
Airline and Hospi! tality So! lutions
The Company�� Airline and Hospitality Solutions business offers a broad portfolio of software technology products and solutions, primarily through SaaS and hosted models, to approximately 225 airlines, 17,500 hotel properties and 700 other travel suppliers. Its software and systems applications help automate and optimize its customers��business processes, including reservations systems, marketing tools, commercial planning solutions and enterprise operations tools.
Travelocity
Travelocity is the Company�� family of online consumer travel e-commerce businesses through which it provides travel content and booking functionality primarily for leisure travelers. In August 2013, Travelocity entered into an long-term strategic marketing agreement with Expedia which was recently amended and restated in March 2014 to reflect changed commercial terms (the Expedia SMA). Under the Expedia SMA, Expedia will power the technology platforms of Travelocity�� existing U.S. and Canadian Websites, as well as provide access to Expedia�� supply and customer service platforms. Additionally, Travelocity recently sold its Travelocity Partner Network (TPN) business, a B2B loyalty and private label Website offering, to Orbitz.
The Company competes with Amadeus, Hewlett-Packard, Unisys, Navitaire, Jeppesen , Lufthansa Systems, SITA, PROS, ITA Software, Datalex, Travelport, MICROS, TravelClick, Pegasus and Trust.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Stephen Grocer]
High-profile offerings from boutique investment bank Moelis(MC) & Co. and travel-technology firm Sabre Corp.(SABR) sold fewer shares at a lower price than both expected lat week. On the day they debuted, shares of the two companies rose 4.6% and 3%, respectively.
Hot Quality Companies To Invest In Right Now: Special Opportunities Fund Inc.(SPE)
Special Opportunities Fund, Inc. is a close-ended fund of funds launched and managed by Brooklyn Capital Management LLC. It invests in close-ended funds investing in public equity and fixed income markets. The fund employs a combination of value, opportunistic and special situations strategies to make its investments. It benchmarks the performance of its portfolio against the S&P 500 Index. The fund was previously known as Insured Municipal Income Fund, Inc. Special Opportunities Fund, Inc. was formed on February 18, 1993 and is domiciled in the United States.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Whopper Investments]
For example, his Special Opportunity Fund (SPE) needed more capital to effectively implement its activist strategy after he took over. Unfortunately, most of the ways to raise capital are expensive and seriously dilute shareholder value. For example, a common stock offering, the most common way a closed end fund would raise capital, has to be priced at a discount and an investment bank needs to be paid to organize and sell it. Obviously, paying to issue shares at a discount is a disaster for long term shareholder value, so he instead pursued a rights offering for convertible preferred stock, which allowed the company to raise money without the expense of an investment bank while allowing shareholders the opportunity to increase their holdings in the fund without paying a commission. From the prospectus,
Hot Quality Companies To Invest In Right Now: Avalon Rare Metals Inc (AVL)
Avalon Rare Metals Inc. (Avalon) is a Canada-based mineral exploration and development company. The Company�� primary focus is on rare metals and minerals, including tin, lithium, tantalum, niobium, cesium, indium, gallium, zirconium and calcium feldspar. It is in the process of exploring or developing three of its six mineral resource properties. The Company�� active projects (Thor Lake Rare Metals Project (Thor Lake), Separation Rapids and East Kemptville) are rare minerals or rare metals properties that are at an advanced stage with identified mineral resources. Thor Lake is the Company�� leading project. The Thor Lake is located in the Mackenzie Mining District of the Northwest Territories, approximately five kilometers north of the Hearne Channel of Great Slave Lake and approximately 100 kilometers southeast of the city of Yellowknife. It comprises five contiguous mining leases totalling 10,449 acres (4,249 hectares) and three claims totalling 4,597 acres (1,869 hectares). Advisors' Opinion:- [By James E. Brumley]
Rare Element Resources Ltd (NYSEMKT:REE) has been getting more than its fair share of attention of late.... bullish attention, to be precise. The stock's benefited from the attention too, with REE shares up 58% in the past two and a half weeks. As compelling as that move is, however, it's not the best rare earth bet at this point. If you like Rare Element Resources, you'll love Avalon Rare Metals Inc. (NYSEMKT:AVL). Unlike REE, AVL isn't already overbought. Indeed, it's just getting started.
First and foremost, it's worth noting that the undertow pushing Avalon Rare Metals and Rare Element Resources Ltd shares upward is doing the same for most rare earth metal miners. That undertow is simply a broad price improvement for rare earth elements. Since July's low, neodymium ("the biggie) prices have advanced from $75/kg to the current price of $103/kg, and are still going strong. Some observers have already suggested the proverbial bottom has been made, and their arguments actually hold up pretty well. That's why REE and AVL have been such - no pun intended - hot commodities of late... this rebound in rare element prices seems to be the real deal.
So what's wrong with Rare Element Resources Ltd that isn't wrong with Avalon Rare Metals? In simplest terms, AVL isn't overbought right now, while REE is.
With just a quick glance at the chart of Rare Element Resources Ltd we can see that shares had already been hot, gapping higher back on the 16th, yet never looking back. Now it's up huge, and on huge volume. In fact, today's big 11% pop will be the highest volume day we've seen in months.
On the surface it seems bullish, but this is one of those "too much of anything is still too much" situations. REE may be hot, but it's well overextended already, and today's extreme bullishness may be actually be a blowoff top.
AVL, on the flipside, isn't nearly as overextended right now. In fact, it appears to just be getting started. Though it to - [By Doug Ehrman]
The broader comments are a boon for the industry, explaining why competitors like Avalon Rare Metals (NYSEMKT: AVL ) traded up nearly 10% and Rare Earth Elements (NYSEMKT: REE ) surged over 12% on the news. If industrial demand for rare-earth elements is stabilizing and beginning to build, then all three of these companies will benefit. High inventories in the hands of customers have been a major drag on prices for an extended period, and If this trend is reversing, Molycorp should see continuing strength in the later part of the year.
Hot Quality Companies To Invest In Right Now: Wizard World Inc (WIZD)
Wizard World, Inc., incorporated on May 2, 2001, produces pop culture and live multimedia conventions (Comic Cons) across North America that provide a social networking and entertainment venue for fiction enthusiasts of movies, television shows, video games, technology, toys, social networking/gaming platforms, comic books and graphic novels. The Company has two lines of business: live multimedia events, which involves ticket sales and exhibitor booth space, and sponsorships and advertising. On December 7, 2010, the Company acquired Conventions (which collectively refers to Kick The Can Corp. and its predecessors Wizard Conventions, Inc. and Kicking The Can, L.L.C) pursuant to a Share Purchase and Share Exchange Agreement (the Exchange Agreement). As the result of the Share Exchange, Conventions became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company. The Company, through, Conventions, is a producer of pop culture and live multimedia conventions. On November 13, 2010, the Company acquired the production rights to the Mid-Ohio Comic Con from GCX Holdings.
These Comic Cons provide entertainment companies, toy companies, gaming companies, publishing companies and retailers venues for their sales, marketing, promotions, public relations, advertising and sponsorships efforts. On March 18, 2011, the Company formed a wholly owned subsidiary, Wizard World Digital, Inc. (Digital). Among other things, Digital monitors and sends emails to its fan database; manages its Website www.wizardworld.com and its online accounts, and produces the Company�� online newsletter, Wizard World Digital. The Company also produces Wizard World Digital, an online publication covering new and upcoming products and talents in the pop culture world, which is distributed on a weekly basis to online and iPad users worldwide. Kick The Can Corp. was incorporated in Nevada on September 20, 2010. As of November 17, 2011, the Conventions held the production rights to 11 conventions: Atlanta Comic Con (Atlanta, GA); Big Apple Comic Co! n (New York, NY); Cincinnati Comic Con (Cincinnati, OH); Connecticut Comic Con (Hartford, CT); Nashville Comic Con (Nashville, TN); New England Comic Con (Boston, MA); North Coast Comic Con (Akron, OH); Toronto Comic Con (Toronto, Ontario); Nola Comic Con (New Orleans, LA); Central Canada Comic Con (Winnipeg, Manitoba), and Mid-Ohio Comic Con (Columbus, OH). The Company developed the Comic Cons in Miami, FL, Anaheim, CA, Austin, TX, Philadelphia, PA and Chicago, IL.
The Company competes with Reed Exhibitions Limited and Hobby Star Marketing Inc.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By CRWE]
Today, WIZD remains (0.00%) +0.000 at $.520 thus far (ref. google finance June 20, 2013).
Wizard World, Inc. previously reported record financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2013 today.
Convention revenue was $1,793,476 for the three months ended March 31, 2013, as compared to $520,155 for the comparable period ended March 31, 2012, an increase of $1,273,321. The Company produced two events during the period ended March 31, 2013, as compared to one event during the comparable period ended March 31, 2012. Average revenue generated per event in 2013 was $896,737 as compared to $520,155 during 2012.
Hot Quality Companies To Invest In Right Now: Arabian American Development Co (ARSD)
Arabian American Development Company, incorporated in 1967, is engaged in manufacturing various specialty petrochemical products. As of December 31, 2011, the Company owned a 37% interest in Al Masane Al Kobra Mining Company and a 55% interest in Pioche Ely Valley Mines, Inc (PEVM). The Company�� United States activities are primarily conducted through a wholly owned subsidiary, Texas Oil and Chemical Co. II, Inc. (TOCCO). TOCCO owns of South Hampton Resources Inc. (South Hampton), and South Hampton owns of Gulf State Pipe Line Company, Inc. (Gulf State).
South Hampton owns and operates a specialty petrochemical facility near Silsbee, Texas, which produces petrochemical solvents and other petroleum based products, including isopentane, normal pentane, isohexane and hexane, which is used in the production of polyethylene, packaging, polypropylene, expandable polystyrene, poly-iso/urethane foams, and in the catalyst support industry. Gulf State owns and operates three pipelines that connect the South Hampton facility to a natural gas line, to South Hampton�� truck and rail loading terminal and to a petroleum products pipeline owned by an unaffiliated third party.
South Hampton owns and operates a specialty petrochemical facility near Silsbee, Texas which is approximately 30 miles north of Beaumont, Texas, and 90 miles east of Houston. The facility consists of seven operating units which, while interconnected, make distinct products through differing processes: a Penhex Unit; a Reformer; a Cyclo-pentane Unit; an Aromax Unit; an Aromatics Hydrogenation Unit; a White Oil Fractionation Unit, and a Hydrocarbon Processing Demonstration Unit.
Gulf State owns and operates three 8-inch diameter pipelines aggregating approximately 50 miles in length connecting South Hampton�� facility to: a natural gas line, South Hampton�� truck and rail loading terminal and a petroleum products pipeline system owned by an unaffiliated third party. The Penhex Unit has the capacity! to process approximately 6,700 barrels per day, with the Reforming Unit, the Aromax Unit, and the Cyclo-Pentane Unit further processing streams produced by the Penhex Unit. The Aromatics Hydrogenation Unit has a capacity of approximately 400 barrels per day, and the White Oils Fractionation Unit has a capacity of approximately 3,000 barrels per day. The Hydrocarbon Processing Demonstration Unit has a capacity of approximately 300 gallons per day. The facility generally consists of equipment commonly found in petrochemical facilities, such as fractionation towers and hydrogen treaters except the facility is adapted to produce specialized products. South Hampton produces eight distinct product streams and markets several combinations of blends as needed in various customers��applications.
The Reformer and Aromax units are operated as needed to support the Penhex and Cyclo-pentane Units. The other two operating units at the plant site, an Aromatics Hydrogenation Unit and a White Oils Fractionation Unit, are operated as two, independent and completely segregated processes. These units are dedicated to the needs of two different toll processing customers. Products may be sold directly from South Hampton�� storage tanks or transported to the customers��location for storage and marketing. South Hampton, in support of the petrochemical operation, owns approximately 75 storage tanks with total capacity approaching 225,000 barrels, and 95 acres of land at the plant site, 55 acres of which are developed. South Hampton also owns a truck and railroad loading terminal consisting of storage tanks, four rail spurs, and truck and tank car loading facilities on approximately 53 acres of which 13 acres are developed.
The Company�� mineral interest in the United States is its 55% ownership interest in an inactive corporation, PEVM. PEVM�� properties include 48 patented and 5 unpatented claims totaling approximately 1,500 acres. All of the claims are located in Lincoln County, Nevada.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Seth Jayson]
Arabian American Development (NYSE: ARSD ) reported earnings on June 26. Here are the numbers you need to know.
The 10-second takeaway
For the quarter ended March 31 (Q1), Arabian American Development beat expectations on revenues and beat expectations on earnings per share. - [By Seth Jayson]
Calling all cash flows
When you are trying to buy the market's best stocks, it's worth checking up on your companies' free cash flow once a quarter or so, to see whether it bears any relationship to the net income in the headlines. That's what we do with this series. Today, we're checking in on Arabian American Development (NYSE: ARSD ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.
Hot Quality Companies To Invest In Right Now: Westinghouse Solar Inc.(WEST)
Westinghouse Solar, Inc. engages in the design, manufacture, integration, and installation of solar power systems under the Westinghouse name. It offers its solar power systems for residential and commercial customers. The company also designs and distributes solar panels with integrated micro inverters (called as AC solar panels). The company sells its AC solar panels to solar installers, trade workers, and do-it-yourself customers through distribution partnerships, dealer network, and retail outlets. It has a strategic partnership with Real Goods Solar, whereby Real Goods Solar operates as an authorized dealer for westinghouse solar power systems for sale to its customers in California and Colorado markets. The company was formerly known as Akeena Solar, Inc. and changed its name to Westinghouse Solar, Inc. on Apr 14, 2011. Westinghouse Solar, Inc. was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Campbell, California.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Bryan Murphy]
My enthusiasm regarding Real Goods Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ:RSOL) and Westinghouse Solar Inc. (OTCMKTS:WEST) hasn't exactly been a veiled secret. Though I've favored one over the other at various times since the entire solar panel industry went back into high gear in the middle of the second quarter, I've been a fan of both RSOL as well as WEST for a while. The trick has been finding the right entry spot for both of these volatile stocks.
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