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Kapitall submits:The following is a list of dividend-paying stocks that are in rally mode, i.e. trading above their 20-day, 50-day and 200-day moving averages. All of these stocks have market caps above $2.0B and current ratios above 1.5 (to ensure they have necessary liquidity to pay their dividends).In addition, all these companies have attractive valuations. Each stock in this list has a trailing twelve month (TTM) Price/Earnings and Price/Sales ratio below industry averages.Complete Story »

Andrew Wilkinson submits: CVB Financial Corp. (CVBF) – The bank holding company for Citizens Business Bank popped up on our scanners after one options strategist purchased a large chunk of put options in the October contract. Shares in CVB Financial declined as much as 2.2% to $7.03 thus far in the session, but the investor observed posturing in put options on the stock is looking for the price of the underlying to fall significantly lower by expiration day. The pessimistic player picked up approximately 26,000 puts at the October $5.0 strike for an average premium of $0.40 apiece. The outright bearish bet yields profits to the investor if shares plummet 34.5% from today’s low of $7.13 to first shatter the existing 52-week low of $6.61, and ultimately breach the effective breakeven price of $4.60 by expiration in October. The massive opening purchase of puts fueled a 26.8% run up in the stock’s overall reading of options implied volatility to 100.77% by 12:00 pm ET. Principal Financial Group, Inc. (PFG) – A large bullish position was initiated on the provider of financial services and insurance products this morning, suggesting one options strategist is positioning for a significant rally in the price of the underlying stock through October expiration. PFG’s shares are up 1.2% at $22.30 as of 11:25 am ET. Shares may have been helped higher following news that U.S. life insurance sales rose 7% in the past 3 months. One optimistic trader purchased 17,500 calls at the October $25 strike for an average premium of $0.375 per contract. The investor makes money on the transaction if Principal Financial Group’s shares jump 13.8% in the next couple of months to trade above the average breakeven price of $25.375 by expiration day. PFG’s shares last traded above $25.375 back on August 3, 2010. Complete Story »

Kapitall submits:Here is a list of 15 companies releasing earning statements on July 22. We've sorted the companies by market cap, and have briefly discussed their earnings performance over the past 3 years. The charts show past earning performances against analyst estimates. The green markers indicate the company beating estimates, while the red makers represent the company falling short of analyst expectations. All data is sourced from Zacks Investment Research.Complete Story »

Kapitall submits:Here is a list of 15 companies releasing earning statements on July 22. We've sorted the companies by market cap, and have briefly discussed their earnings performance over the past 3 years. The charts show past earning performances against analyst estimates. The green markers indicate the company beating estimates, while the red makers represent the company falling short of analyst expectations. All data is sourced from Zacks Investment Research.Complete Story »

Kenneth Hackel submits: As if public enterprises didn’t learn their lesson the first time, we are again seeing stepped-up buyback activity. For the S&P 500, during their reporting latest quarter, the firms in aggregate bought back $80.8 billion in common and preferred stock versus $67 billion a year earlier, a greater than 20% increase. As of the latest reporting period, S&P firms in aggregate have reported the following:click to enlarge Complete Story »

Steve Alexander submits:Eli Lilly (LLY) is one of the largest of the "big pharmaceutical" companies, focusing especially on the clinical areas of the nervous system, endocrine system (hormones), cancer, and the cardiovascular system (heart and lungs). The firm also has a substantial veterinary drug business.Lilly's largest and most important drug is Zyprexa, which is used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorders. In 2009, Zyprexa totaled $4.9 billion dollars in sales, putting it easily within the top 10 selling drugs worldwide and representing about 22% of Eli Lilly's total revenues. Cymbalta, a strong antidepressant, delivered $3.1 billion in sales, an impressive 15% increase over 2008 and 14% of the firm's total sales. Other blockbuster contributors include: Humalog, an insulin substitute ($1.96 billion); Alimta, a lung cancer treatment ($1.7 billion); Cialis, for erectile dysfunction ($1.56 billion); Gemzar, a pancreatic cancer drug ($1.36 billion); and Evista, for osteoporosis ($1.03 billion). In all, the company has a pretty impressive portfolio of drugs, with less concentration risk than many competitors.Complete Story »

Derek Lowe submits: Exelixis (EXEL) has long been a bit of a puzzle to outside observers. The company has developed a number of clinical candidates in oncology (many of them kinase inhibitors, I believe). In fact, for a while there, they seemed to have developed more clinical candidates than a company that size should have been able to manage. It was a bit alarming to employees of larger companies in the area. And figuring out what the structures of these things were wasn't so easy, either. I once had the unenviable assignment of trying to break down a stack of their patent applications to see if I could find the lead structure for one of their compounds, and after a week or so I had to concede. None of my usual tricks worked - untangling and charting out the synthetic pathways from the experimental section to see the common threads, looking for sudden upticks in the amounts of intermediates or final compounds being prepared, looking to see if some compounds had been more completely characterized than others, and so on. No, these folks had done a fine job of sweeping up after themselves, and over the years I've run into other people who came to the same conclusion.Complete Story »

Miriam Metzinger submits: Stocks discussed on Jim Cramer's Stop Trading! TV Segment, Friday June 11. Bristol Myers (BMY), Banco Santander (STD), Citigroup (C), ArcSight (ARST), National Semiconductor (NSM), BP (BP)Complete Story »

Frederic Ruffy submits: SentimentStocks are trading mixed in very slow market action Friday. The table was set for early weakness after the Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 274 points Thursday and after data showed retail sales unexpectedly falling 1.2 percent in May. What! Economists were looking for an increase of .1 percent. However, a better than expected reading from the UofM Sentiment Index (75.5 vs. 74.5 consensus) helped to offset some of the worry from the poor sales numbers and trading had turned mixed by midday. It’s been slow. With less than an hour left to trade, the Dow is down 25 points and the NASDAQ up 8. The CBOE Volatility Index (.VIX) lost .93 to 29.64. In the options market, about 3.8 million calls and 3.9 million puts traded so far, or only 60 percent the recent average daily volume.Bullish FlowAfter trading to a low of $56.90 in morning action, Concho Resources (CXO) shares are up 39 cents to $58.49 and options volume is running 4X the recent average daily. The action includes 2127 Jul 65 calls and 2033 Dec 70 calls. Most of the action has been in smaller sizes on the ISE. The top trades are 200 lots trading at the ask in afternoon action. ISEE data hints at a non-customer firm buyer (however, it’s possibly premium selling and implied volatility is down about 5.5 percent to 51). Shares of the Midland, Texas onshore driller have been strong lately due to the recent problems in the offshore drilling industry. CXO is up nearly 25 percent from its late May lows and now testing a resistance area just above $59.Complete Story »

Bud Labitan submitsBristol-Myers Squibb Company (BMY) is engaged in the discovery, development, licensing, manufacturing, marketing, distribution and sale of pharmaceutical products on a global basis. The Company’s products are sold worldwide, primarily to wholesalers, retail pharmacies, hospitals, government entities and the medical profession. It manufactures products in the United States, Puerto Rico and in eight foreign countries. In September 2009, BMS acquired Medarex, Inc., and in December 2009, it divested the Mead Johnson Nutrition Company (MJN).

• Last Price: $23.55
• 52 Week High: $27.07
• 52 Week Low: $19.12

Does BMY make for an intelligent investment or intelligent speculation today?Complete Story »