Everyone should have a portion of their portfolio earning steady income, and what better way than a (relatively) safe high dividend yield stock?  In this time of record low interest rates, you have to branch out of CD’s, term deposits, and treasury bills, and get some serious dividend income rolling in.  Right now, companies are holding record amounts of cash, and are looking at ways to utilize that excess cash.  Some are buying other companies, some are buying back their own stock, while others are raising, or initiating dividend payments. Read the rest of this entry

Yikes, usually its the coffee drinkers who are jittery, but today it was Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, ticker GMCR on Nasdaq, stock holders who were feeling jittery.  GMCR shares closed the day down a whopping $5.95, at $31.06.  The stock actually opened in the low $31 range after closing the previous day at $37.01.  Ouch.

So why did GMCR get roasted?  The usual….an SEC investigation into Green Mountain Coffee Roasters accounting processes, and in specifically, into revenue recognition practices by GMCR.  While these investigations always tend to stir some panic in the average shareholder, it’s very rare that company’s are severely penalized.  And I don’t think we’re talking about an Enron here.  It’s very clear that the Keurig coffee cups are being sold anywhere and everywhere, and at a very premium price.  So there’s no doubt in my mind that anything serious is at hand.

On the one hand, I would pull a Jim Cramer and push the BUY, BUY, BUY button, based on the nice discounted share price on GMCR today, caused by the over reaction to the news.  However, given that GMCR is trading at a rather hefty PE mulitple of 60, I would say it may be prudent to hold off until there is further evidence that this “accounting issue” isn’t going to knock down revenues, either in the past, or on future sales estimates. Be sure to add Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR) to you your watchlist!

*****update:  well, as expected this beat down didn’t last long on GMCR…..it is now trading at $38.66 on February 4th, 2011….not too shabby.

Cel-Sci Corporation stock (Amex: CVM) and their Mulitkine phase iii trial is getting a lot of attention this week.  Trading volume on CVM has been much higher than normal the last three trading days, up to 15 times higher in fact.  And the price has gone from the $0.55 area to a intraday high of $0.84 today (Thursday, September 22, 2010).  What is the explanation for this meteoric rise?   Who knows?  The company has not come forth with any news explaining this sudden, hot activity. Read the rest of this entry