Amazon.com

Happy Tuesday to all our readers! Our company today is Amazon.com (AMZN). Unfortunately, we have no been able to observe change in the market this week due to Hurricane Sandy and the NYSE Stock Exchange - our hearts go out to everyone in the Northeast affected by the storm! Well, let's look at Amazon. Amazon is an online retail company that was established in 1994; on this website, you can find and buy just about anything. The CEO Jeff Bezos brings innovative ideas to the company, which is growing from its online retailing into the mobile world, with the upbringing of devices such as the Kindle, and new tablets such as the Kindle Fire (HD); also, rumors are emerging of the possibility of Amazon offering a cellular phone. As with tremendous growth in technology, AMZN is seeing sustained growth on the market, having consistently made positive earnings per share (EPS) except for 2008. In late September of this year, Amazon announced plans to expand cloud storage, as to expand its currently standing Amazon Cloud Drive. Later in the month, the retail company won a lawsuit against Apple due to their use of the term, "app store," relative to Apple's "appstore," and no charges were filed. This thankfully avoided yet another drastic lawsuit involving Apple, and gained some ground on the market with increased activity surrounding Amazon. At the beginning of this month, critics claimed the Kindle Paperwhite a winner in the eBook category, placing Amazon once again at the top to earn yet more acclamation on the market. With all the new up-and-coming devices Amazon is releasing, as well as the expansion of cloud services, we advise to buy stocks in AMZN while they are relatively cheap, only around $238. Unfortunately, we bought a few shares two months ago before Amazon headed downhill, and have taken a $60 loss. We do, however, stand behind our predictions and believe Amazon will experience more growth after the NYSE picks back up.

Yahoo! VS. AOL

Happy weekend to all our viewers! Today's post is our debate topic, and we strongly encourage anyone interested to comment and pick either Yahoo! (YHOO) or AOL (AOL). Both companies focus on online properties and services. When you open your web browser, there's a good chance one of the two is your home page! Yahoo! was established in 1995, and is currently headed by Marissa Ann Mayer. In 1999, Yahoo! experienced an extreme surge in stock price, jumping nearly $90 to about $110, but has since then seen a steady decline. Since 2008, stocks have remained near $16-17. In exploring Yahoo!'s development on the market over the last month, we noticed a trend we previously had never seen - never opening at the same price as the previous day. This severe fluctuation may be the outcome of a Chinese company's, Alibaba, plan to buy 40% of stocks in the company. This brought consumer insecurity with investing in YHOO, but early October's return of CEO Marissa Ann Mayer refilled some security, and prompted an increase in stock price. The company remains on a rather unpredictable path, especially with Alibaba's interest in possibly buying majority control of the company. We advised our members against investing in the company, but turned a profit ourselves earned $7.70. Under regular conditions (buying with a fair degree of confidence, not just to see how performance compares to our predictions), however, we would not invest in Yahoo!.
As with Yahoo!, AOL focuses on online properties. AOL, however, was established in 1983 - twelve years earlier - and is now headed by CEO Timothy Armstrong. This company experienced a decline in share price from 2008 until mid 2011, when it hit a low of about $10, and begin recuperating. Now, stocks average around $35-37. In late September, AOL partnered with Vibe Media and saw significant growth for over a week, increasing $3. Another surge upwards occurred when AOL decided to focus more on mobile platforms, a decision made public on October 4th. Since then, the company has curved downwards in price and moved back up - recent days have notice the trend downwards again. Unfortunately, our simulated investments in AOL turned negative, and we have lost over $20 on ten shares. We advise to invest in AOL, but with caution as the performance of its partners can easily affect the company. Have you invested in AOL or YHOO before, if so, how did you do? Although we do not fully advise investing in either company, we would love to hear how are readers have been doing on the market! Feel free to leave a comment, and we will get back to you ASAP. Thanks for reading!

NVidia and Texas Instruments

Today's post continues with our Tech month as we observe two companies, NVidia (NVDA) and Texas Instruments (TXN). NVidia is a company that produces graphics chips and mobile processors. It was established in 1993 and is currently headed by CEO Jen-Hsun Huang. Since electronically public in 1999, we immediately notice that NVidia's stocks are rather unstable and have experienced very little growth in the long term. Share prices peaked in 2007 but are now down to levels previously seen in 2005, about $12-14. In the past month, stocks have remained within this range and have fluctuated between the extremas in just a week. On September 26th, NVidia announced new optimism about cloud gaming - games which involve multi-player online gaming, such as the recently popular League of Legends (LoL). On October 4th, the company reaffirmed a 'buy' status, prompting investment, but was soon downgraded back to a 'neutral' late October 5th. NVidia, despite the common fluctuations, is more stable than before. We advise to invest in the company when stocks reach the lower extrema and promptly sell when it reaches the higher. This is an easy, low-risk strategy to make some money on cheap shares over about a week.
Our other company today is Texas Instruments. This company designs and produces semiconductors and other circuitry, as well as the calculators we all use and love. This company, established in 1951, is currently headed by Richard Templeton. Since our records show, the late 70's, TI has not experienced tremendous growth, except in 1999-2000. Now, in 2012, the stock price is about the same as shares in 2003 up, the stagnant $30 zone. Texas Instruments, unlike many of the other companies we discuss, does not involve significantly in buying other companies and therefore only has market fluctuations from bank ratings and dividend releases. On September 21st, TI announced a quarterly dividend with an increase of 24% over which was previously expected. September 26th saw the downgrade from OP to P with a harsh point drop at the opening of the market. Two weeks later, on October 11th, Credit Suisse downgraded TI to 'neutral,' which surprisingly had a minute impact. Although we can expect growth, we suggest to avoid investing in TI for now; the market could spike again, but it is unlikely considering current conditions. Somehow, we made a profit investing in Texas Instruments, despite the minor euro crisis currently in Europe. This, however, does not change our advice about investing in the company.

IBM and Siemens

Today, we are visiting two very different tech companies, IBM (IBM) and Siemens (SI). IBM, short for International Business Machines, is a company that focuses on IT infrastructure and business processes that was established in 1911. The company has grown to adapt with increasing technologies and is now headed by Virginia Rometty. Since public on the tech market, IBM has experience fairly steady growth and is now heading towards a promising future nearing all time highs of about $200. This initial view seems promising, and recent activity shows the same. Although it is somewhat unstable, it reaches almost $10 gains in just three days and takes significantly longer to lose stock value. In late September and early October, IBM has bought numerous companies: on September 24th, the company acquired a data analysis company called Butterfly Software; on October 1st, IBM also acquired Texas Memory Systems. Even more recently the company signed a cloud service contract with Kwality Dairy India, thus expanding its world reach and helping the shares grow. IBM is partnering with many new companies and signing fresh contracts that will help it grow and we advise to invest in the company. However, the Euro is currently experiencing worsening conditions and the market in every sector is unfortunately unstable. To further demonstrate the severity of the current status, we lost $77 over five shares of IBM in just one day of trading. We will try to analyze current market transitions on the world stock exchange and follow up with our readers quickly.
Our other company today is very different from IBM, and our other companies on the list: Siemens (SI). This is a very diverse company, with its hands in industry, healthcare, and energy technologies. Siemens was established in 1923 and is now headed by CEO Peter Loescher. Immediately when looking at stock prices, since 2001, the unstable market shows an outstanding lack of growth, surprising us - we expected such a multifarious tech company involved in so many industries to experience great growth. The 2008  recession - you can further read about this catastrophic event in the previous post, "2008 Global Recession: Where Did It Come From?" - took a huge toll on Siemens and the company consequently experienced nearly $100 in loss and has only recouped halfway since. Recent events are not providing a healthy outlook for Siemens, but rather raising eyebrows towards allegations of illegal acts. On September 24th, SI denied the claims that it had sold nuclear equipment  to Iran. This, as expected, had a slight downturn on the stocks of the company - who wants to invest in a company that supports anti-American activity? Granted, Siemens is a company that holds great control over nuclear energy, as seen with the TVO desire to buy $2.32 billion in its nuclear claims on October 1st. A week later, on October 8th, a new controversy sparked because of UK's desire to limit nuclear energy for environmental reasons. This brought a sustained decline in stock price. We advise against investing in the company without detailed research into the activities of the energy industry; also, the political issues surrounding Siemens and not allowing consistent growth in the company. We only lost $3.3 on the market today over ten shares and the market seems stable, but the state of the euro can harshly impede the growth of many companies, and a large part of such companies are suffering drastic losses.

2008 Global Recession: Where Did It Come From?

     In December 2007, the global economy took a steady decline into the following year, culminating in September 2008 in what has become known as the largest economic recession in recent history. Over the past 4 years, the impact of this worldwide downturn has become ubiquitous, raising unemployment, foreclosure and bankruptcy rates on a pandemic scale and lowering the average consumer's purchasing power as well as property values. So with these far-reaching consequences, one must naturally inquire as to how such a financial catastrophe came about; unfortunately, a crisis of such a magnitude has no simple origin. Despite this, the cause of the 2008 recession may trace back to several key factors present at its inception.
    The first of these factors is the low interest rates which affected a variety of global markets, especially the housing industry. As a counter to the economic decline of 2000/2001, the U.S Federal Reserve eased credit availability to debtors, pushing spenders further into debt whilst improving purchasing power; the end result of this was a bubble in the housing market of the late 2000s, driving house prices to unprecedented levels.
    The result of this economic bubble was an unanticipated market for credit default swap markets, meant as an alleviation tactic against growing debt levels. However, the nature of such a market requires that the housing market continues to rise: this is where debt-related issues began to truly expand. The artificiality of the consequent boom in housing prices led to a liquidation of debtor's investments. As a result, the housing bubble burst in 2008, plunging housing prices to devastatingly low levels; thus, the housing market fell into crisis and the global recession was born.
    As one may observe, the global recession of 2008 came about not as the result of any particular cause, but as the product of a combination of multiple economic factors. It is the intricacy of such a far-reaching issue which places so much significance on the maintenance of economic stability and reliability, so as to prevent a domino effect from wreaking potential havoc on the global market.

-Christopher Cattafi, Vice President, LMHS Investment Club

Adobe and Oracle

Tech month is finally here!! To start off this great series of companies, we are showcasing two large players in the software business - Adobe (ADBE) and Oracle (ORCL). Adobe is a software company that focuses on programming (we all know Adobe Reader and Flash) that was established in 1983. The current CEO is Shantanu Narayen. As we began observing the company, just a superficial overview since the late '80s, we noticed that it is very unsteady but that it does have a decelerating growth pattern, growth nevertheless. Instability has increased since 2009, and the shares are stuck around $30. Looking at late September and early October, we saw the same instability, but were hopeful for growth. On September 18th, Adobe bore far ahead of earnings, which consequently led to a influx in trading. Shares kept changing hands quickly until the 21th, when it was announced programming companies were falling below par (including Oracle), and the stock price fell a dollar by the beginning of the next week. Last week, however, ADBE began showing growth again and we invested. Buying shares on Monday at $32.26, we sold them on Friday at $33.24, making $10 on just ten shares! We highly suggest investment in Adobe over the short term, as we expect strong growth for a few days.
Next, we looked at a similar software company, Oracle. This company, established in 2005, focuses on IT servers, cloud computing, as well as programming. Oracle owns Java, the computer language used in nearly every electronic device, which was written in 1994. The current CEO is Lawrence Ellison. Unlike Adobe, Oracle shows consistent growth - except 1999-2000, which we will explain over the coming weeks. Since 2011, unfortunately, ORCL has grown unstable. The last month's market for this company has absolutely no clear pattern. Starting on September 20th, Oracle endured a 2% drop in sales and by next week had already dropped two points. Our biggest concern in the company exists in the uncertainty of its future. Some investors and analysis are saying buy, others telling to sell, some just to remain neutral. Other analysts are interchanging between OP (outperform) and P (perform). We advise against investing in Oracle, as shares are not changing hands enough and we cannot be sure of the equities' future. As proof, we invested in the company and bought shares at $31.20 and they are now at $30.48. These could surge right back up very soon, but we really can't predict anything with Oracle. These are significant players in the tech world - I installed updates for both today - and we certainly hope they will keep climbing (Adobe) or pick back up (Oracle).

How do we invest?

To answer a question that I am sure many of the blog readers are wondering, we are writing this post to answer the question, "how do we invest?" Since we are limited on funds and how we can spend our money, we use a simulator to buy, sell, and see how are stocks progress. We use the website www.investopedia.com to simulate all the investments and manage a group game to see how all of our members do. With this website we have adjusted the settings so that each member of the Investment Club has up to $50,000 in cash money to start and their goal is to make as much money as they can. At each meeting, which take place two or  three times a month, we discuss all of the companies that we consequently talk about on the blog and either encourage or discourage our members to/from investing in those companies. From there, members can decide whether they will follow our advice, go a completely different route, or simply invest in stocks that they think have a promising future. This website, conveniently, also has a dictionary for many finance, investing, and stock market related terms.
We do need to give a sign of caution to our readers, that our stocks are not always completely accurate. As we are students, we do not have time throughout the day from 8 AM to 4 PM when the stock market is open to consistently and regularly check if we need to buy or sell stocks. Rather, we buy stocks while creating our PowerPoint and outlines for each meeting, and after we have discussed the company, we will sell stocks to make sure that we profit from each trade. On the other hand, whenever we have time during the day to check the markets and invest, we attempt to grab the opportunity and update our portfolio as we can.

Chipotle and Consumer Foodstuffs Wrap-up

This is our final blog post for Consumer Foodstuffs and we are finishing off with a favorite - Chipotle -as well as with wrap up of the entire two weeks that we have been posting about these. Chipotle is a Mexican food restaurant chain established in 1993, and is now headed by the CEO Steve Ells. The stock-price when we first checked about a month ago was $316.13, and when the market closed today, it was at $285.93. As you can see just from these statistics, we have endured a huge loss. When we first started looking at Chipotle, we noticed that since early 2006 when it went public it has seen tremendous growth. Last quarter it experienced profits 61% higher than the previous quarter. However, Chipotle expected $704.8 million in revenue but instead earned only $690.9 million and, with this in mind, investors stopped investing and the stocks for Chipotle plummeted. As we observed action throughout September, we noticed that Chipotle was instead climbing the ranks into the largest companies, now ranking 315th. In late September, September 26 to be precise, more details emerged about what happened just a few weeks earlier that caused the stock market for Chipotle to collapse. These allegations claimed that the board of directors sold all their stocks right before the collapse, consequently leading investors and analysts to believe that they were part of a 'conspiracy' that provided them millions. All this nonsense and economic and political scandal surrounding chipotle is only furthering our decision not to invest in the company. Since first investing we have lost almost $170 on just five stocks.
We are disappointed leave on such a depressing note to close off Consumer Foodstuffs weeks but we are very excited to begin Tech month. However, we are happy to say to nearly all of our predictions of how companies would do on the stock market were correct. While some companies such as General Mills and Campbell Soup Company grew as expected, other companies including Chipotle and Starbucks suffered and caused us major losses. Now...for the results of our poll. Our readers voted Coke products over Pepsi products with an overwhelming majority!
Please make sure to keep reading later on and over the next few weeks and months, as we will keep blogging and posting more information about companies involved in growing technology, communications systems, healthcare, insurance, and everyday consumer goods. We will also post as soon as we can information about the 1999 to 2001 stock market surge and consequent collapse, as well as the 2008 market crash and recession.

Heinz and McCormick

We are almost done with Consumer Foodstuffs and have just three more companies to tell you about. Our two companies today are HJ Heinz (HNZ) and McCormick (MKC). Heinz, the well known producer of ketchup, also produces and distributes other condiments and frozen meals. It's company was created in 1900 and is currently headed by CEO William Johnson. The company, since our statistics begin providing us information in the 1970s, has shown prominent growth except for 1988, when the company changed hands and name, and 1998 and 2008. Since 2008, the company has more than recuperated and now hits all time highs approaching $60. When looking in more recent terms, on September 6 the companies target stock price was projected to increase and consequently went up sixty cents. About two weeks ago, there was a decline in Campbell stocks and investing in Heinz increased. We bought some stock at $56.11, and sold (all by simulation) them at $56.34 this past Friday. This gives us a slight profit of $2.30, but we do encourage investing in the company. There's a small margin of profit and it's a good low-risk investment for amateur or casual investors.
Our other company today is McCormick (NKC). This company focuses on distributing condiments and spices and was established in 1881. The current CEO is Alan Wilson. We observed the lifetime stocks of the company starting in the 1970s, as the with Heinz, we noticed that it has very steady and a very reliable growth pattern. Shares did not have any major downturns except 2008, during which it dropped by about 10 points. We studied with more depth the fluctuations in September and found key events that changed the share price. On September 6th, McCormick reaffirmed its fiscal year earnings projected, with an expected 11%, instead of the 9% previously announced. This led to a spark in investment in the company, followed by an increase of a dollar in stock price. Three weeks later, when fiscal earnings had only improved by about 6%, nowhere near the 11% everyone expected, and the stocks fell a harsh $2 a piece. We bought stock before the drop, at $62.11, and it is now at $61.76. Although we lost some money on this transaction, we do recommend buying the stocks while they are low as we expect for McCormick's market to spike at again by the end of the month. Make sure to join us tomorrow as we finish off Consumer Foodstuffs (revisited in 2013) and start Tech month (October 16th - November 12th).

Beer, Tea, and Dr. Pepper

We have more beverage companies in our Foodstuffs analyses, and today's are Boston Beer (SAM) and Dr. Pepper Snapple (DPS). Boston Beer, better known as Samuel Adams Beer Company, is a conglomeration of beer distributors that was first established in 1984. The current CEO is Martin Roper. We were quite impressed with Boston Beer's performance on the stock market: public in '95, Facebook-like downturn in '96, steady growth until 2007, drop in 2008, and skyrocketing since 2009. Since going public, actually, it has grown almost 80 points. Around September 20th, Denver Beer Company, one of SAM's competitors, was endorsed, and Samuel Adams fell two points over that week. After reaching a month-high of about $114, the company had its rating decreased and the share price dropped $5. We bought ten stocks in the company at $107.42 (expensive share) and after just a few days had already made $16. This profit, unfortunately, took a turn downhill and we are now at $6 in loss. Even with this change, we do suggest to invest in Boston Beer. Buy now and sell when it reaches the $115s again.
Our other beverage distributor, and our last of the series, is Dr. Pepper Snapple Group. This company was established in 1885, with Dr. Pepper alone. In 2008, it merged with Snapple to form the current company. The current CEO is Larry Young. At first view of the stocks since the merge, the company seems to be fairly stable and profitable. This is an extreme deviation from the actual stocks of DPS. We further delved into recent prices and found heavy fluctuations from day to day. On September 13th, the market closed at $45.4. The next day, the company was reported growing and healthy; it opened at $44.5 that same day, and closed at $44.1. On September 25th, Coca-Cola was reported to have bought a large quantity of shares from Aujun, and Dr. Pepper Snapple's stocks plummeted further to down $43.6. Although we love Snapple and Dr. Pepper, we advise against investing in the company for now. The stocks are very unstable and unpredictable. We have lost $10 in simulated investments in the company on just 10 shares.

SmartBalance and Campbell

Today's post for Consumer Foodstuffs are about SmartBalance (SMBL) and Campbell (CPB). SmartBalance, a functional food products and replacement food products solutions company, was created in 2005. It distributes products that are healthier than the everyday products sold. The current CEO of SMBL is Stephen Hughes. Since incorporation, SmartBalance showed a tremendous future in the stock market, nearly doubling in just two years. However, since late 2007 and 2008, the stock have been falling; in mid 2012, the company experienced a well needed surge and increased its share value by almost $7. As we began studying more recent activity in the company, we were looking forward to big changes, but the market is fairly stable. On September 14th, the company's price target was risen, and so were stocks. Two weeks later, on September 27th, the mother company of SmartBalance, Dean Foods, sought buyers from MorningStar which consequently increased the stocks by half a point. With its cheap price and stability, investing in SMBL is a great low-risk plan for new investors, especially those worrying about a large profit/loss margin. We bought ten shares in the company nearly a month ago, priced at $12.18 and now at $12.14, and, although we lost some money, this still shows the stability of the market. Always remember to buy low and sell high.
Our other company is Campbell. This American favorite soup distributor, as well as other convenient foods, was established in 1922, and is now headed by Denise Morrison. The company grew from the 70s up until 1998, when it reached its apex at $60, and has since remained stagnant around the $30 mark. During September, the share price stayed close to $34 without significant change. On September 10th, Campbell released astonishing statistics that lowered the stock price: it announced that it had lost 14% of the market since the previous decade. Considering Campbell now owns 53%, a decade earlier it had control of 67% of sales in soup and such products! Later, the September 19th release of the new V8 Fusion Juice kindled new trading with the company and increase shares by almost a dollar. Campbell seems to be heading in the right direction on the stock market, and, since the dividend release in late September, looks to be on the rise. We suggest to invest in the company short term, as it can easily fluctuate between $33-$35 in a single day.

Hillshire VS. Tyson

As we continue with our Consumer Foodstuffs weeks, we are now looking at Hillshire Brands (HSH) and Tyson Foods (TSN). Hillshire is a meat food solutions company established in 1934 that is now headed by Sean Connolly. We studied the stock market of this company, since the split from DE US (a coffee retailer) in July 2012, and have noticed that, although the shares significantly declined since the split, they are on the beginnings of a road to recovery. Unfortunately, as we observed more recent trading, their market has been consistently unstable, never pushing above $27.5. On September 12th, BMO Capital Markets reiterated the market performance of Hillshire Brands which resulted in a gain of almost 1.5 points. Just yesterday, the market was back down to the level a month ago. As we do with our other companies, we bought ten simulated shares of Hillshire, each priced at $26.70. Note that we bought these nearly a month ago, around September 14th. Although the shares are now at $26.50, turning a small loss, we could have gained a profit having sold the stocks on September 21st. Granted, even with this very real possibility, we still advise against investing in Hillshire. This is one of the most unstable companies and we see no positive possibilities for the company in the near future.
Our other company of this post is Tyson Foods. Tyson is also a meat food solutions company but that was established in 1931. The current CEO is Donald Smith. Since the mid-70s, the company has slowly increased, but experienced severe spikes both up and down (especially down) since the 1990s. On September 10th, a competitor of both companies, Hormel was reduced to a 'neutral' status and activity increased in other similar foodstuffs companies, including Tyson. A week later, Brasil Foods decided not to buy Tyson, which consequently reduced the share price for a day. As  with Hillshire, we bought ten shares at $16.10; the market closed today at $16.11. Yes, this was indeed a profit (very minute) but it shows the lack of a good future in investing with Tyson. Unfortunately, we do not have any positive advice for either of these companies. This is not the best time to invest in such products, but we sincerely hope the market for such goods will soon pick up and allow these companies to attain levels unreached since last decade.

Kellogg & Starbucks

Welcome back to Consumer Foodstuffs week. Today we are looking at Kellogg (K) and Starbucks (SBUX). First, Kellogg is a cereal and convenient food distributor that was established in 1922. The current CEO is John Bryant. As with our other companies, we simulated investments by buying ten shares in the company, priced at $51.49. Since then, we have turned this into a minute profit, as the market closed today at $51.58. Historically, the company has not exactly been stable - it has great spikes, but also great tumbles. Shares reach highs in 1997, 2008, and 2010, but have always fallen right back down, best seen in 2000 and 2008. Looking at the company in more recent terms, stocks are fluctuating between neutral and buy ratings. Just a month ago, on September 4th, Kellogg reaffirmed its neutral rating and dropped about a quarter point that day, and another half point by the next week. The week of September 27th, the cereal distributor announced the release of new low-calorie products, which prompted growth over the next weeks (no other major events occurred) and by last week reached almost $52 a share. We believe the company is a good short-term investment, but do not expect it to turn a tremendous profit.
Our second company is the coffee retail chain, Starbucks. This favorite of many was established in 1985 and is now headed by Chief Exec. Howard Schultz. We 'bought' ten shares about two weeks ago, priced at $50.93, and made quite a loss since then. The market closed at $47.35 today, marking nearly $36 in losses since buying the stocks. Since incorporation, the company has seen tremendous growth, followed by 2008, and then a staggering recuperation and all-time high in early 2012. The company now is struggling to maintain those statistics - the market for Starbucks is very unstable. On September 4th, the company closed a deal with LivingSocial, to sell $10 gift cards at $5, an attractive proposal that lifted share price by a dollar. At the end of the following week, the company announced its reaffirmation of the 'buy' status and that it expected growth to $57, from the stagnant $52. To say the least, the stocks fell far from expectations, dropping nearly $3. The current instability with the company, and the desperate actions taken to meet expectations, along with our own losses at a two month low only adds to our advice against investing in Starbucks.

Coke VS. Pepsi

One of the greatest battles in foodstuffs history, the everlasting clash of Coca-Cola (KO) and PepsiCo (PEP). These two worldwide beverage manufacturers and distributors have been competing since the 1890s, specifically 1892 for Coke and 1898 for Pepsi (Coca-Cola really is the first, Pepsi fans...). The current CEO of Coca-Cola is Muhtar Kent and of PepsiCo is Indra Nooyi. The stock prices of the two on Sunday were $37.93 and 70.77, respectively.
Now, let's focus on Coca-Cola. We bought ten shares on Monday priced at $38.16 each. After a full week of trading, the shares are now priced at $38.58. Profit! Since 2009, the company has been growing at a fantastic rate, near doubling the stock price. On September 13th, Coca-Cola was reintroduced into Myanmar following a fifty-two year hiatus, increasing the price by a quarter of a point. Almost two weeks later, Coca-Cola partnered with Global Fund; with its widespread distribution network, the company is able to help spread critical medicine to regions in need, in regions such as Ghana, Tanzania, and Mozambique. This partnership also elevated stocks by a quarter point, but more importantly will aid untouched parts of Africa in critical times.
Enough Coke, who wants Pepsi? As with Coca-Cola, we bought ten shares of PepsiCo at $70.70 a piece. Again like Coke, we made a profit as the shares are now at $71.10. This company has seen much steadier growth output on the market since incorporation. Since 2008, PepsiCo has strongly recuperated and we expect it to reach 2007 levels soon. On September 12th, the shares actually suffered a near-dollar loss due to its favorite rival - Coca-Cola. On this date, Coke introduced RimZim, a rejuvenated drink made with exotic Indian spices, in India, after noticing a prolonged loss in competitiveness in the second-most populated country. Stocks remained on the lower spectrum (closer to $70) until September 26th. Before discussing this, it is crucial to note that Pepsi is based in the Netherlands, for tax reasons. On this date, PepsiCo won the "Debt vs. Equity" dispute caused because the company was taxed and treated as an American company. This sent the shares back in the $71 region, that is until the next few days (but back up this week!).
We were happy with our investments in both companies this week. Although PepsiCo has greater cash flow, Coca-Cola has a greater market cap. Which would you invest in? We recommended both, but for different reasons - short-term is better for PepsiCo, as it is expected to grow by about 4% over the next fiscal year; long-term is better for Coca-Cola, as it is expected to grow by 7% over the next FY, reaping 75% more profits than Pepsi, considering the amount of stocks one can buy with limited funds. Sorry to all Pepsi fans out there, but the monetary battle between Coke and Pepsi is won by Coke, although we do recommend both of these medium-risk investments.

Feel free to leave comments on both your investing decisions between the two companies, your favorite drink, and any comments about the blog.

McDonald's and Kraft Foods

Continuing this week's "Consumer Foodstuffs" topic, we are presenting McDonald's (MCD) and Kraft Foods (KFT). McDonald's, the well known fast food franchise spread across the world was established in 1933; that is almost eighty years of McDonald's! The current Chief Executive is Donald Thompson. The stock price this Sunday was $91.75 and is now at $90.93. Looking at lifetime statistics for the company, their shares have increased value since incorporation until present, except for a brief period between 2000 and 2003. On September 20th/21st, McDonald's annouced its quarterly cash had increased by 15%, leading to almost a point increase on the market. Just a week later, on September 27th, the company was downgraded from a 'buy' to a 'neutral' status, and we thus concluded it was too unstable to currently invest. In our simulated investments, we did lose nearly $12 on ten shares, which we purchased at $92.11. Considering this was only with ten shares, greater shareholders lost significantly more money in just two days.
Our other highlight company of the day this week is Kraft Foods (KFT). This convenience food company was established in 2000 and is currently led by CEO Irene Rosenfeld. The stock price on Sunday marked $41.35. We bought ten shares on Monday at $41.08, and by today made almost $7. Unfortunately, the company has not made much growth since incorporation, especially in a very kinetic time frame, for the better and worse, from 2003 to 2009. On more recent terms, KFT stocks have been changing drastically with each turn of events. September 6th, Kraft Foods announced its future split into Kraft Foods Group and Mondelez, scheduled for October 1st, which quickly led to a point-and-a-half drop in share price. The split yesterday, despite our expectations, actually gained us a profit. We do somewhat speculate inconsistencies with the stocks as the week progresses, and as the public and investors gain more knowledge concerning Kraft's split.

Thank you for reading, and keep visiting the blog daily/weekly for our analyses!! More to come this week: Coca-Cola vs. Pepsi, Kellogg, Boston Beer, and many more!

Costco & The Fresh Market

Our first two companies to analyze in "Consumer Foodstuffs" Week are Costco Wholesale (COST) and The Fresh Market (TFM). Costco, a bulk shopping / wholesale company was established in 1983; the current CEO is W. Jelinek. The stock price Sunday was $100.16 (we bought ten shares at $100.63) and closed today at $100.51. Since going public, this company has shown consistent growth, except for an unstable period between 2000 and 2008. Looking at All-Time price variations, Costco seems to be on the right track to keep growing. The mid-September gender bias case caused a hiatus in growth and stock prices are now decreasing, especially since September 25th. We advise not to invest in the company for now, as it may worsen further, but there are definitely possible investing opportunities in the near future.
Our other preview company for the week is The Fresh Market. This specialty foods retailer was established in 1981 and is now headed by Craig Carlock. The stock price on Sunday was $59.93, we bought ten shares at $59.19 and the market closed at $58.71 this afternoon. After studying the TFM's market prices, we agreed that they are highly unstable, explainable by the company's poor balance sheet - there is not enough flowing cash. Recent movements in the industry are sparking an interest in buying stocks: Amazon revealed a new web-based organic retailer named Vine, a product of Quidsi, a company bought in 2010. This will surely aid Fresh Market's share value with more interest in investing. Although we did lose money today, we are hopeful that TFM can provide decent temporary investing.