gjangal

CTRP, it's a revenue Growth + margin expansion story. Quite a bit of it is already priced in but with qunar consolidation, mid 30s may not be a bad price

Schwab, If you are interested in IT services , may I suggest LXFT and EPAM. Both are growing revenues at 25% pa and might grow at that rate for some time. EPAM's adjusted margins are around 14-15% . Both are run by founders although luxoft has a drawback of being majority owned by a Russian oligarch. Risks are both have substantial operations in Ukraine and Russia Syntel has so much cash but why did it stop dividends and why is it it not buying back stock with so much cash on the balance sheet? Just had a cursory glance and this stood out

Certainly does look cheap. Sold MON a few weeks ago and added to FICO today. Schwab, since you know fico well, why aren't they exhibiting any operating leverage yet(sga seems to be a problem ) . if you look at EFX which uses Fico algorithms for its services , they seem to exhibit operating leverage. Just wanted to know your thoughts on this.

his answer to me was a bit light on details, but mastercard' s op margins are around 52% and visa's is around 65%. At 11% organic rev growth and a possible double digit op margin expansion , Ma can still run higher

I don't have any recent information on fcnr deposits but you have to look into a couple of things to do if you do decide to open CDs 1. File an FBAR with treasury dept every year if you have more than 10k 2. Indian banks don't give out 1099-Int at the year end. US banks doing business in India do it like Citibank

I totally missed that, thanks for the details [ My first warrant purchase so i should think of it as cost of education / leverage :) ]. Including cumlative dividend of ( 1.2 * 5 = 6$) for 5 years, common and warrants start to look equal around at around $39 per share, any price more than $39 on the common by 2019, warrants come out ahead

Class B warrants, cost: $15.77, Strike : $18.33 , Common has price: 33.31. You are paying only slightly above market price cost of warrant + strike price = total outlay 15.77 + 18.33 = 34.1 It totally depends on your outlook for the stock. You are paying very less leverage cost at today's market price to hold the right to buy GM stock in 2019 Ideally i would love to get Mohnish's average price ( roughly $11 based on his filings, i could be wrong ).

I don't know much about it either, it looks like they can be bought and you will be entitled to the spin off shares after the distribution date. Better to contact your broker

The when issued's are trading at around 34. On 107mn outstanding shares that's a 3.6B market cap. 24 times earnings of 149 mn. They started at 30.4. http://ir.distributionnow.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=252871&p=irol-presentations The RIC is DNOW_w.N

Based on their prelim filing numbers, spin-off might trade anywhere between 17 and 22 per share, but all depends on the multiple the market is willing to give this business given that its a low margin business. 2013 Pre-Tax Income: 224 mn BV: 1802 mn Goodwill: 333mn Intangibles: 68mn TBV: 1401 mn ROE (Tangible) : 15.98% Should be interesting to watch, anyone else took a look at numbers?

Read this 10-K a while ago, Basically they have very sticky relationships with GE, Roll Royce, Boeing and the likes for jet engine components and other parts, also turbines for generating electricity. Basically it boils down to complex manufacturing processes, customer relationship and consistent deliveries over a long period of time. It's hard to replace them as they are integrated with the design and manufacturing processes at these companies, they also can pass on some costs to the customers. Consistently high ROE/ROA. The flip side is they have few large customers

Its still illegal to send employees as visitors and then ask them to work. When they enter as visitors and work, they won't be entitled or have protections by law for a fair wage. It's just like any other illegal alien worker. My guess is that your company will probably be able to get away saying we don't know anything, we just hired this company to do this work for us and we have no responsibility of verification. These companies sometimes write it in their contract stating that verification costs are not reimbursable and that the contractor company needn't share verification results with company representatives, but shall furnish them upon request.

AKREX is good fund. Its run by Chuck Akre who ran the FBR focus fund. The fund primarily concentrates in companies that have good ROIC, FCF and revenue prospects His 13-F filings have been a good source of ideas for me

Sharing some information which i found a while ago researching this company http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/features/investment-world/macro-view/we-will-continue-to-grow-above-industry-average/article4935423.ece "The overall banking system as such is a function of the growth in the gross domestic product (GDP). The loan growth has been 2.5-3 times the real GDP growth in the past. And HDFC Bank has grown around 5 per cent higher than the industry average" "We expect GDP growth to range between 5.5 per cent and 5.7 per cent in 2013-14. The overall credit growth in the banking system can move up to around 17 per cent."

I was reading the 10-K of QCOR quite a while ago. The company seemed cheap and was trading at 12 PE with decent cash flow. They had one major product Acthar , the company benefited by raising the price of the drug from 50$ a vial to around $28k per vial. There were only a few patients in the US that needed it for a rare condition, i forget what it was. They own the patent for it. They were also hiring a lot of sales people to market the drug for other uses I decided to skip the company, I wasn't very comfortable with it.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/02/19/facebook-buys-whatsapp/5617657/ Texting app sold for 16B

CBI (Chicago bridge and Iron) As many of you probably know it's a Buffett/Weschler/Combs pick Some points from 10-K and IR presentation: Their major source of revenue is winning major construction projects in 1. Hydrocarbon refining, petrochemicals and natural gas industry. Building LNG terminals , Engineering procurement and construction activity 2. Technology patents related to refining hydrocarbons 3. Nuclear power services related revenue Cautionary note: This is my newbie thesis for the stock Order book is at the end of DEC 13 is $ 25B and has been growing. TTM Revenue at 9.6B. Gross margins around 12-13%. They predict the capex on construction projects related to energy sector go on till 2020 [iR presentation]. Pretty much every marquee oil company is their client Its priced at 14 times next year earnings, but if the cycle persists and they continue winning energy related projects, EPS could grow double digits. Some Risks: 1. Industry is very competitive for winning projects, pricing and margins pressure 2. Capital intensive depending on the type of project executed ( fixed or cost plus) 3. Projects on the backlog can be cancelled

C , 90% Tangible book. Betting on them improving their ROE/ROA

Thank you stahleyp and bigbadwolf.

For funds it depends on your administrator. I have a bunch of fidelity funds, invesco etc. You can just put it in an index fund and get market return.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_savings_account http://whitecoatinvestor.com/retirement-accounts/the-stealth-ira/ I wanted to get the board's opinion on using HSA as an IRA. I am trying to defer income as much as possible. My personal situation is that I don't have a mortgage, no student loans or any major deductions that can be itemized. Would appreciate any feedback from people who have done this. Thanks in advance

Spot on. Attitude is everything. The key to working for others is to cheerfully make yourself indispensable to as many people as you can. This attitude works wonders for your compensation and future prospects. Do the work others are unwilling to do. Pay attention to details. When asked to do something, follow-up later the same day and let your boss know that you have made progress and give a specific date/time when you will finish the assignment. Do this even if you believe the project is worthless or a waste of time. Respect his authority, and just do it. Be humble, quickly admit when you are wrong, and never make excuses. Your reputation will grow and so will your leverage. People will take you seriously when you tell them you want to earn more or take more responsibility, and you will be presented with other opportunities inside and outside your firm. Most people in your age range feel underpaid, so you are not alone. If you are legitimately underpaid (not just whining), you are probably doing good work. Recognize that in the future you will likely be overpaid. Compensation is never neat and tidy so don't let it distract you from your key goal which is to gain a reputation for effectiveness. At 25, you have lots of time. I took me years to understand these concepts and I made some bad mistakes along the way, but applying the above and a little luck allowed me to walk away from formal employment at 48 with more money than I will ever need. +1. This is great career advice in this season of reviews and bonuses. Thank you onyx, uccmal , kraven and packer I am bit older than benny and have seen this work the same way so far. The senior people who like you and think you are capable are the ones that are going to give you the next opportunity. Succeeding ( whatever your criteria is) is always about both talent and opportunity. You may be talented but if no one gives you the opportunity , its harder to achieve what you want. Being likable and effective (as onyx describes above ) gives you those chances in life

Software Developer, building desktop trading applications at a bank

Thank you cubsfan, bookie71 Its time to call them because I don't see any performance numbers. I see Portfolio Performance has 4 tabs - Asset Allocation, Sector Diversification, Equity Concentration and Quality. If I select the portfolio, it gives me 12 month return of the stocks in my portfolio not my personal rate of return.

35.08% TWRR . Its my first year of proper investing , reading 10k's balance sheets cash flow statements. Mostly because of MA, AXP, GOOG . A result I doubt I can replicate in future