In this article you are going to find out whether hedge funds think Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ:BBBY) is a good investment right now. We like to check what the smart money thinks first before doing extensive research on a given stock. Although there have been several high profile failed hedge fund picks, the […]

from Yahoo Finance https://ift.tt/2XCj2Sa

If there's one thing that traders have learned about Inovio Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:INO) stock, it's that half a year can make a huge difference. Biotechnology stocks can be fast movers, sure, but this particular one has been a real barn burner, as they say.Source: Ascannio / Shutterstock.com INO stock was trading for $3 and change at the beginning of this year, but a whole lot has happened since then. The spread of the novel coronavirus has put clinical-stage biotechnology companies like Inovio in the spotlight. And that's enriched its stockholders while causing problems for short sellers.The share price did ease off of the mid-May peak, but that's not necessarily indicative of any actual problems with Inovio. For those traders who did choose to take profits on INO stock, they may soon find that they cut their winnings short and left a considerable amount of money on the table.InvestorPlace – Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips A Serious ContenderThe race to develop a vaccine for the coronavirus is still in effect and it's closely watched by the investing community. Each stage of progress in the development of a vaccine is likely to be rewarded by stock traders.Among the contenders in the biotechnology space, Inovio is a strong candidate. It is working tirelessly in pursuit of the elusive coronavirus vaccine. A recent research study suggested potentially positive results for Inovio's Covid-19 vaccine candidate, INO-4800. In this study, the vaccine candidate was tested on laboratory mice and guinea pigs.Those preliminary findings aren't the be-all and end-all, but they represent great progress for Inovio. By the end of this year, the company plans to have 1 million doses of INO-4800. It's conceivable that Inovio could become a household name in 2020. * 7 Hotel Stocks to Buy Before Vacationing Restarts And a high-figure financial award could help Inovio's plans come to fruition. Specifically, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations has given Inovio a total of $17.2 million. That's a tremendous head start from a financial standpoint. A Promising PartnershipHaving access to the capital provided by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations will undoubtedly prove to be advantageous for Inovio. But a game-changing partnership between research-driven entities could give Inovio an even greater edge over the competition.On June 4, the International Vaccine Institute and Seoul National University Hospital announced a headline-grabbing collaboration. Together, they will commence a Phase 1/2 clinical trial of INO-4800 in South Korea.This event is already making history as this two-stage trial, which is scheduled to begin later in June, will be the first Covid-19 vaccine clinical study in Korea. At first, INO-4800 will be tested on 40 healthy adults ranging in age from 19 to 50 years.After that, 120 more people, ranging in age from 19 to 64 years, will be enrolled in the study. Funding for this research will come from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations with support from the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention/Korea National Institute of Health.This is an excellent example of fast-tracking in action. Usually it would take several years to begin clinical trials for a new vaccine. But since the need for a coronavirus vaccine is urgent, this INO-4800 study can start promptly.International Vaccine Institute Director General Jerome Kim expressed eagerness to move forward with the trial. He called the INO-4800 research "a crucial step in the development of an urgently needed COVID-19 vaccine."Seoul National University Hospital Professor Myung Don Oh also emphasized the importance of the upcoming INO-4800 trial. He predicted that the trial "will provide significant momentum in easing fears over the pandemic and helping return to normalcy." The Final Word on INO StockThe prospect of INO-4800 helping get the world get back to a more normal, healthy state is encouraging. INO stockholders should be encouraged by Inovio's efforts to be first to market with a coronavirus vaccine. And they can view any share-price dips as temporary as the company's progress should be reflected in the stock price soon enough.Louis Navellier had an unconventional start, as a grad student who accidentally built a market-beating stock system — with returns rivaling even Warren Buffett. In his latest feat, Louis discovered the "Master Key" to profiting from the biggest tech revolution of this (or any) generation. Louis Navellier may hold some of the aforementioned securities in one or more of his newsletters. More From InvestorPlace * Why Everyone Is Investing in 5G All WRONG * Top Stock Picker Reveals His Next 1,000% Winner * The 1 Stock All Retirees Must Own * Look What America's Richest Family Is Investing in Now The post Why You Shouldn't Rush to Take Profits on Inovio Stock appeared first on InvestorPlace.

from Yahoo Finance https://ift.tt/3h4Gf72

Before we spend countless hours researching a company, we like to analyze what insiders, hedge funds and billionaire investors think of the stock first. This is a necessary first step in our investment process because our research has shown that the elite investors' consensus returns have been exceptional. In the following paragraphs, we find out […]

from Yahoo Finance https://ift.tt/3dG94Vv

(Bloomberg Opinion) — Saudi Arabia called out the cheats at yesterday’s OPEC meeting — the countries that hadn’t fully reduced oil output in May as agreed — and extracted promises that they would compensate with even deeper reductions in the third quarter. Now the kingdom faces the group’s perennial problem of enforcing those promises.The meetings of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and the bigger OPEC+ group, which includes Russia and nine other countries, were the shortest and least controversial since the latter collective was formed in 2016. It’s not that there was no drama; it just all took place in the days before the virtual gatherings.The drama centered around the failure of key countries to make all the output cuts they had promised when the group met by videoconference the previous month. Of the 20 countries participating in that deal, 19 agreed to reduce their production by 23% from agreed-upon baselines. Only Mexico held out, and eventually the others gave in to its demand for a smaller reduction.When the May production estimates started coming in, however, it became abundantly clear that several countries hadn’t fulfilled their promises. That’s not unusual — but what followed was.Saudi Arabia was done turning a blind eye to the cheats. It spent a week threatening and cajoling them. In the end, as well as agreeing to extend current output targets through July, the other countries promised to compensate for the barrels they failed to remove in May, and would fail to cut in June, by making deeper cuts in the third quarter.Four countries, in particular, were held to account — Iraq, Nigeria, Angola and Kazakhstan. Iraq and Nigeria have long histories of failing to make the cuts they promised under previous OPEC+ agreements. Angola’s production last year was well below its target, and Kazakhstan met its obligations on average over the period, thanks to maintenance and unexpected outages at its biggest oil fields. But neither cut quite as much as they had pledged last month.Iraq especially angered the Saudis by admitting that, not only had it failed to meet its obligations in May, but it wouldn’t be able to get output down to its target level  until the end of July. On the other hand, Nigeria had insisted that its production numbers were reported incorrectly by the secondary sources that OPEC relies on to monitor production, but its oil minister eventually admitted in an Instagram post that the country had cut production by 216,000 barrels a day — 52% of the reduction it had promised.All four countries eventually agreed to the principle of making additional compensatory output cuts in the coming months. The real tests will be whether they do, and how Saudi Arabia reacts if they don’t.Back in March, when Russia refused to accept deeper output cuts championed by Saudi Arabia, the kingdom threatened to bring the whole OPEC+ edifice crashing down, rather than go on without Russia’s full participation. Russia called Riyadh’s bluff, and the Saudis proceeded to boost their oil production to more than 12 million barrels a day in early April — just as the destruction of global oil demand by the Covid-19 pandemic reached its peak.The kingdom seems to have threatened to do the same again, if it didn’t get its way ahead of Saturday’s meetings. But Iraq and Nigeria learned from Moscow’s mistake — at least well enough to say the right things to appease Saudi Arabia.Nigeria may be able to meet the new goal, as it will be aided in the task: Maintenance being conducted on at least one of its major offshore oil fields means production will run at reduced rates and shut down completely for several days. Iraq, though, will find it more difficult. In fact, I don’t see any way that it can meet its obligations by the end of September.Assuming its production falls steadily between now and the end of July to reach its target level, Iraq would still have to reduce output in August and September by more than 1.3 million barrels a day from what it pumped in April — taking production down to a level not seen in six years. That is going to be a very tough sell for the newly installed government in Baghdad.OPEC and OPEC+ only have more promises from those countries to make deeper cuts. The organizations have no mechanisms to enforce them.But after the disastrous meetings in March and April, Saudi Arabia looked strong in the run-up to Saturday’s gathering, holding Iraq and Nigeria to account. Maybe those countries will find a way to do what they’ve promised. But even if they don’t, it might not matter so much. Because by demanding extra cuts and getting promises that they will come, the Saudi oil minister has sent a warning to other would-be backsliders: They, too, will be called out if they fall short.Plus, the oil market could look very different by July. Brent crude is already above $40 a barrel, demand is slowly recovering and supply has been reduced significantly. They may be able to meet their promises simply by maintaining cuts while others slowly increase output.For now, Saudi Arabia has shown that it can exercise a degree of authority over the other OPEC members and instill some discipline, or promises of it. Even that is a big step toward restoring credibility to OPEC and OPEC+ after a couple of bruising meetings earlier this year.This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Julian Lee is an oil strategist for Bloomberg. Previously he worked as a senior analyst at the Centre for Global Energy Studies.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

from Yahoo Finance https://ift.tt/37bWPh4

One thing we could say about the analysts on Auxly Cannabis Group Inc. (CVE:XLY) – they aren't optimistic, having just…

from Yahoo Finance https://ift.tt/2MCkhKE

It's natural to wish that you had taken a stake in Nio (NYSE:NIO) when Nio stock was trading at $2 and change this year. That's a phenomenon you could call "hindsight investing," where a great stock trade is obvious only after the fact.Source: Sundry Photography / Shutterstock.com Nio stock is higher than $2 now, of course, and that raises the question of whether it can go much higher. Should value-focused investors avoid a particular stock just because it recently doubled in value? The thoroughly unsatisfying answer is: it depends on the stock and the circumstances.Based on the data, there should be plenty of upside left for Nio stock. In fact, it's entirely possible that the shares could double again from here. After all, this was a $10 stock a year and a half ago. Could it get there again before the year is over?InvestorPlace – Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips * 7 Hotel Stocks to Buy Before Vacationing Restarts When Flat Is All You Could Ask forBetween the havoc caused to automotive supply chains in China and the demand destruction in terms of new-vehicle sales, the novel coronavirus is quite possibly the worst thing that could have happened to Nio and its shareholders.All things considered, though, an argument could be made that the company is taking the Covid-19 mayhem in stride. Or at the very least, the damage control has been adequate.This is reflected in the price action of Nio stock, which is working its way back up to the 52-week high of about $6. Besides, there's a glimmer of hope on the horizon for the Chinese automotive market, and hence for Nio.As Baird analyst David Leiker points out, automotive production in China cratered by 44% during this year's first quarter. There was a bounce-back in April, however, as nationwide production was flat for that month on a year-over-year basis.Amid the backdrop of a viral pandemic, flat is pretty darned good. The airlines and the cruise-ship companies would gladly take flat over their current conditions. And China is still the world's largest electric-car market, so Nio's got a big, albeit weather-beaten, playground to play in. A Realistic ReboundWhen it comes to the automotive market, investors would be better off keeping their expectations low. If you're hoping for a tremendous rebound in the current market conditions, you're only setting yourself up for a major disappointment.Nio's first-quarter financial results paint a picture of a company in distress but starting to regain its footing. For instance, the company delivered 3,838 cars during that quarter. That's not too different from the 3,989 vehicles that Nio delivered during the same quarter of the previous year, long before the coronavirus craziness commenced.Moreover, the quarterly sales figure topped the analyst community's expectations. On average, they were projecting $180 million in quarterly sales for Nio. The actual result was roughly $194 million. So, add another one to the win column for Nio.Plus, we have to bear in mind the timeline of the coronavirus's spread in China, which peaked earlier than it did in the United States. China's financial struggles accelerated mainly during that first quarter. Against this backdrop, Nio's not-too-awful quarter was really quite impressive.And if we shift our scrutiny to April, which wasn't included in the first-quarter financial results, the overall picture really starts to brighten. Believe it or not, in April, Nio managed to deliver 3,155 vehicles. To give you some context on that figure, it's more than twice March's deliveries.It's also an improvement of more than 180% compared to Nio's deliveries in April of last year. Looking ahead now to the second quarter, Nio expects to deliver around 9,750 cars in that time frame.Summing up his evident relief, Nio CEO William Bin Li observed, "We have witnessed the order growth to have rebounded to the level prior to the Covid-19 outbreak since late April." The Takeaway on Nio StockAppreciating how "flat" can be really good isn't something that every investor's willing to do.If you're willing to take a data-backed leap of faith, however, then a long position in Nio stock could reward your tempered optimism in the long run.David Moadel has provided compelling content – and crossed the occasional line – on behalf of Crush the Street, Market Realist, TalkMarkets, Finom Group, Benzinga, and (of course) InvestorPlace.com. He also serves as the chief analyst and market researcher for Portfolio Wealth Global and hosts the popular financial YouTube channel Looking at the Markets. As of this writing, he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. More From InvestorPlace * Why Everyone Is Investing in 5G All WRONG * Top Stock Picker Reveals His Next 1,000% Winner * The 1 Stock All Retirees Must Own * Look What America's Richest Family Is Investing in Now The post You Haven't (Yet) Missed the Nio Opportunity appeared first on InvestorPlace.

from Yahoo Finance https://ift.tt/2BGv4l0

According to Global Market Insights, the cybersecurity industry will grow at an average of 12% per year. The sector could reach $400 billion by 2026. The emergence of cloud and edge computing created a new sector of cybersecurity stocks.However, the new "work from anywhere" culture has caused companies to accelerate their investment in cybersecurity. There is growing evidence that a significant percentage of the workforce will continue to work from home. This bodes well for cybersecurity stocks, many of which use a software as a service (SaaS) model.Another catalyst is the emerging 5G infrastructure that raises additional concerns about connected devices adding strain to cybersecurity measures. In response to a question from InvestorPlace, Braden Allenby, President's Professor and Lincoln Professor of Engineering and Ethics at the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University, wrote, "5G may well be an important enabling technology for the … Internet of Things (IoT), which will deploy literally billions of sensors, processors, and chips across global systems."InvestorPlace – Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading TipsMore devices mean more threats. Says Allenby, "these data and assets can in turn be suborned for any number of purposes, from feeding neural net AI at scale, to forming massive bot armies that can then be used for nefarious purposes."Adding to this dilemma is the increased volume of data. As Allenby said, there is now an independent data economy: "Data have independent value, and all things (being) equal, the tech firm that has the most data has a better chance to win the AI (artificial intelligence) race."With that in mind, here are six cybersecurity stocks to buy that take advantage of this growing trend. * 7 Hotel Stocks to Buy Before Vacationing Restarts * Palo Alto Networks (NYSE:PANW) * Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) * CrowdStrike (NASDAQ:CRWD) * Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) * Splunk (NASDAQ:SPLK) * Okta (NASDAQ:OKTA) Palo Alto Networks (PANW)Source: Sundry Photography / Shutterstock.com Like most of the cybersecurity stocks on this list, Palo Alto Networks is benefiting from the surge of employees who are now working from home. PANW stock is up nearly 20% in the last month. The company delivered an earnings report that soundly beat analysts' expectations. But what was more important than the quarterly results was the forward guidance.The earnings report made clear that the company is benefiting from the mitigation efforts caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. With that trend likely to continue to at least some extent, that should be a catalyst for this cybersecurity stock.Palo Alto is an example of a company that has successfully pivoted from a firewall model to cloud-based cybersecurity products such as GlobalProtect and Prisma Access. And the company also uses a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model that investors love because it means recurring, predictable revenue.In a statement that accompanied the company's earnings report, CEO Nikesh Arora said the transition that is occurring due to the Covid-19 pandemic could last up to 18 months. "We believe this will prompt key trends to accelerate, including remote working models, shift to the cloud, and focus on AI/ML and automation to drive effective cybersecurity outcomes." Zscaler (ZS)Source: Sundry Photography / Shutterstock.com Zscaler is another of the cybersecurity stocks that is benefiting from the work-from-home movement. ZS stock is up over 115% in 2020. Zscaler uses a cloud-native platform to provide secure web gateways help users access any application from anywhere on any device.Zscaler's signature product is its Private Access (ZPA) product that allows users to incorporate applications without network access. In its most recent quarter, the company had a 10% gain in ZPA usage mostly propelled by the needs of companies to connect remote workers. Zscaler posted a 40% year-over-year (YoY) increase in billings at $110.5 million. And in the all-important category of billings, Zscaler also posted an increase of 55% or $131.3 million.Partnerships are a key part of Zscaler's business model. The company was recognized as a finalist in two Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Security 2020 Partner Awards. "Office 365 and Azure adoption remain long-term tailwinds for Zscaler," said Needham analysts Alex Henderson. "Zscaler continues to train Microsoft professionals on their solution and is seeing positive traction with the salesforces working together." * 8 Battery Stocks That Will Seriously Power Your Portfolio The company also partners with CrowdStrike and is actively working in tandem with the company to help capture more market share. CrowdStrike (CRWD)Source: Piotr Swat / Shutterstock.com That brings us to CrowdStrike. Whereas Zscaler and other companies like it help secure data, CrowdStrike works to protect the devices that are being used to view the data. This is called endpoint security. According to the Gartner research firm, it's a field that is getting crowded. However, according to Gartner, CrowdStrike is still one of the leaders in this space.CrowdStrike has a high valuation at approximately 34x earnings. However, the company may be getting to ready to zoom higher as Zoom Communications (NASDAQ:ZM) is now using the cybersecurity company in response to concerns over its security problems.CRWD stock has nearly doubled in 2020 and has shrugged off the effects of the pandemic-induced selloff in March. The consensus analysts' price target suggests a 12% decline for the stock. However, the analysts that have issued ratings since May 1 have an average price target of $95, with three out of five analysts having a rating of $95 or higher. Qualys (QLYS)Source: Shutterstock Qualys is one of CrowdStrike's competitors in the endpoint security sector. Qualys signs up enterprise clients on their platform, consolidates their security and compliance stacks which help those clients cut their overall IT spending.QLYS stock is at an all-time high and may look moderately expensive compared to its peers at 46 times forward earnings. However, the company is on an upward trajectory. The company touts its Vulnerability, Management, Detection and Response (VMDR) tool. Rather than having the customer handle its cybersecurity through a bundle of apps, VMDR handles everything as a single app.But what really seems to excite investors at the moment is the company's free cash flow (FCF) of over 40%. This helps offset the company's annual revenue growth that at around 14% is less than some analysts may prefer. * 7 Dental Stocks to Buy for Long-Term Gains And as the economy begins to reopen, Qualys has minimal exposure to three segments (retail, hospitality, and travel) that look like they may lag behind other industries. Splunk (SPLK)Source: Michael Vi / Shutterstock.com At first glance, Splunk doesn't look like it belongs in the category of cybersecurity stocks. Its main function is to help customers analyze data and generate solutions based on that analysis. But that data still needs to be protected, and Splunk has been producing data-driven cybersecurity solutions since 2018. As Luke Lango recently cited, one of Splunk's most notable additions is Slack (NYSE:WORK).That addition makes Splunk a relevant player in the work from home movement, which should be a catalyst for growth in the near future. Despite multiple years of more than 25% in revenue growth, Splunk is not yet profitable. But that shouldn't deter investors. The company is forecasting continued sales growth of over 20% over the next few years. As it does, Splunk's high margins should also increase.By including cybersecurity within its existing portfolio of products, Splunk will be able to hold its own as the cybersecurity sector is likely to undergo consolidation in the near-term. SPLK stock is up over 20% this year and has nearly doubled since the March selloff. Okta (OKTA)Source: Lori Butcher / Shutterstock.com I get excited about OKTA stock because I appreciate the simple elegance of their cybersecurity solution. The limitation of many cloud-based security systems is that they treat the company's entire ecosystem as a fortress. The problem is that if the company's ecosystem is a lock, then its employees are the key. In a world where work-from-home figures to be the new normal, security gets challenging when the lock and the key are separated.That's where Okta comes in. The company has a solution that essentially makes each employee part of the ecosystem. Wherever they go, they carry their security with them. Okta also crushed its last earnings report. OKTA stock is responding accordingly, climbing about 60% in 2020.If there is any question about investing in Okta, it would be a concern that the company gave a rather conservative estimate for full-year revenue after blowing through their first-quarter revenue expectations. In an earnings season where many companies have pulled full-year guidance, I'm willing to give the company a pass. Any recovery will seem to be U-shaped at best, so a more conservative forecast may be for the best.Chris Markoch is a freelance financial copywriter who has been covering the market for over five years. He has been writing for InvestorPlace since 2019. As of this writing, Chris Markoch did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. More From InvestorPlace * Why Everyone Is Investing in 5G All WRONG * Top Stock Picker Reveals His Next 1,000% Winner * The 1 Stock All Retirees Must Own * Look What America's Richest Family Is Investing in Now The post 6 Cybersecurity Stocks Keeping Your Data Safe appeared first on InvestorPlace.

from Yahoo Finance https://ift.tt/2APHtlW

The latest 13F reporting period has come and gone, and Insider Monkey is again at the forefront when it comes to making use of this gold mine of data. Insider Monkey finished processing 821 13F filings submitted by hedge funds and prominent investors. These filings show these funds' portfolio positions as of March 31st, 2020. […]

from Yahoo Finance https://ift.tt/2ALomcJ