Reynolds American Inc. (RAI)

Reynolds American, Inc - BidnessEtc

Reynolds American Inc. (RAI) is the second largest tobacco producing company in United States after Altria Group Inc.; its subsidiaries include R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, American Snuff Company, Niconovum AB and Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company. Reynolds American Inc. control around 30% of all cigarettes sold within US. Some of its products like Camel, Pall Mall and Grizzly have continued to capture market share and exhibited tremendous growth momentum in FY2013 and are well on the track to achieve the ultimate goal of market leadership. Reynolds American Inc. has hired Lazard Ltd, as their advisors, to look for a possible deal to acquire the third largest cigarette making company Lorillard Inc. in US. If the deal materializes, it would change the market dynamics and would provide immense growth opportunities to Reynolds American Inc. and would be in a position to pose a threat to Altria Group Inc.

The stock price has seen a phenomenal rise of 20% since last April. The full year EPS rose by 40.2% to $3.14. This upbeat has been as a result of announcement of positive financial results of FY13. Despite the total consumption of cigarettes from 633 billion in 1982 has come down to 286 billion in 2012, the corporation has been successful in increasing its net income by 35.1% in FY13. The rise in profits has been backed by higher cigarette pricing and lower MSA expenses. Since the news of Lorillard Inc. acquisition and impressive annual financial results the company has acquired the attention of investors, the volume of shares traded has significantly increased. The company’s huge liquidity reserves outline strong company position to step into different ventures. Its subsidiary Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company Inc. has been recently awarded Steward Status by the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), it explicitly portrays company’s exemplary environmental performance. Reynolds American Inc. has also taken a number of measures to scale down its electricity usage to help improve the environment.

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Wal-Mart Incorporation Added in Gyft Circle

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc - BidnessEtc

Wal-Mart Incorporation recently has been added in by the San Francisco based application provider. Gyft is a mobile gift card app provider which added Wal-Mart.

The news was released via Twitter to inform the stakeholders regarding this move. Wal-Mart is the largest retail chain in U.S which earned approximately $325 billion from within U.S in the year 2012.

The CEO of the app Gyft Vinny Lingham shared the opinion he has a firm believe that the addition of Wal-Mart shows that how strong brand his (almost) two years company has. With the help of this application Wal-Mart Gift cards will now easily be available to people in different denominations such as at $25, $50, $100, $250 and $500.

Having the largest Wal-Mart stores chain they offer a wide variety of grocery like baby products, electronics items, shoes, jewelry, grocery, pharmacy, health and beauty, sports items etc. One of the major smart strategic moves by Wal-Mart has been offering a wide range of grocery to people. This facilitates the visitors to make maximum purchase according to their needs under one roof. 

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Sodastream Participation in Annual International Home and Housewares Show

Sodastream International Ltd - BidnessEtc

 Some tradeshows or business exhibitions have always been a great platform for launching new products. “Annual International Home and Housewares Show” is one of the reputable platforms which had always given substantial boost to new products. That is the reason every year maximum number of companies dealing in consumer goods actively participate in this show to present their most recent product created or to get a boost in their existing product line. Annual International Home and Housewares Show is particularly a platform for companies which are in the business of household items in some way or the other.

The show is warmly welcomed by global business world and 1000s of retail buyers participate in this show from all over the world. The main focus is to interact with manufacturers, suppliers, to see the products, to remain updated from current happening and for a lot more.

This year had been a great for SodaStream International. Though cannot be claimed to be the highest exhibited but for sure one of the highly exhibited company. It is expected that in near future SodaStream will face severe competition in the industry as many companies have find potential and are aiming to get in the category of home carbonated water. 

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Herbalife and the Sales tactics scandal

Herbalife Ltd - BidnessEtc

Herbalife International is a US based company which deals in the development, manufacturing and marketing of health and skin care products. The company is traded on New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) with the ticker ‘HLF’ and the HLF stock price is currently at $54. The company has market capitalization of over $5.5 billion. The company has been very successful since its inception with sales rocketing over $4 billion in the previous year. The company has a diverse distribution network with distributors in over 91 countries. Herbalife has a multi-level marketing strategy in which the company’s distributors can earn additional commissions from the distributors under them. The company has recently been facing allegations by the public that the company is using illegal practices for its marketing strategy. The supporters of the Multi-Level Marketing strategy are in the favor of the company while the others which are not in the favor of this strategy are usually the short sellers and to some extent their strategy has worked because HLF stock has lost over $10 since the court battles on the issue started. Herbalife’s major stakeholder LCAHN has declared the company a very good investment in the long term and said that these issue are not of much importance since the allegations are not very authentic and the court will be in their favor.

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Root Beer by Dr Pepper Snapple Group

Dr Pepper Snapple Gr - BidnessEtc

Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc. (DPS) is an U.S based soft drink manufacturing company. Formerly it was known by “Cadbury Schweppes Americas Beverages”. The company is based in Texas.

The company has a wide range of well-known brands such as Diet Rite, Hires, Crush Orange, Snapple, Motts, Cactus Cooler, Mistic and root beer which was launched on 20^th June 1919. Root beer has become one of the most famous brands of USA along with drive-ins and car culture. The drink was launched by Roy Allen, a young entrepreneur. The beginning of root beer was when Roy set a road side stand for spectators to quench the spectator’s thirst who were present to honor the returning veterans from World War 1. The drink was thick and creamy which became a huge success in a short span of time giving Roy an opportunity to start a stand with his new partner Frank Wright. Soon he started 5 new stands. Soon he opened 2 more stand in Houston where for the first time he set a name A&W, the brand name of his root beer. He didn’t stop here, but planned forward to start restaurant franchise sales program. This is how the journey of Dr Pepper Snapple Group Incorporation began with root beer.    

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Costco’s expansion plans and investor outlook

Costco Wholesale Corporation - BidnessEtc

Costco is a United States based corporation, which is in retailing business and is ranked 4^th largest retailer in the world. Costco is headquartered in Washington, United States and is traded on NASDAQ with the symbol ‘COST’. Costco stock price is currently at $112 and the company has market capitalization of over $51 billion. COST Stock has given good returns to the investors in the previous years with over 40% return in the last year. Costco is a membership only retailer club. Costco offers wide range of products to its members ranging from home and office products top jewelry and toys. The company’s aim is to sell products at low costs to its members. Apart from having over 650 stores in 8 countries Costco also have an online presence and also offer online buying facility. Currently Costco’s annual memberships are over 71 million which represents that the company has a very strong customer base but most of its memberships are in United States and the international presence of the company is not so much. However the company’s management has announced that the 60% of the new store openings in the coming years would be in international markets which will prove to be very diversifying and promising for the Costco’s investors. 

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Coca-Cola (KO)

COCA-COLA - BidnessEtc

Coca-Cola Company, with the stock market ticker (KO) is the world’s largest producer of non-alcoholic beverages. It produces more than 1.9 billion serving everyday worldwide. It is a favorite stock among dividend investors given the fact that it’s a top dividend yielding stock with current stock dividend yield of 2.93% and dividend growth rate of 8% last year, is higher than that of a close competitor, PepsiCo.

Coca-Cola is a top consumer discretionary stock and is considered one of the best companies to invest in given solid fundamentals like stable cash flows ($8 billion last year) and growing operating margins. The stock market trends for the stock have responded the strong position of the company.  The stock gains have been over 80% in the recent 5 years and due to which it is one of the good stocks to invest in.

The Dividend Aristocrat, has been posting positive stock market news. It recently bought its bottlers in a $12.3 billion deal to gain better control of its business operations. Stock investing is truly an art to analyze relevant information pertaining to different companies to bring it down to the high yield investments. Coca-Cola is surely in the top 10 stocks list for amateur traders and experienced traders alike.

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