Hasbro - Future Catalysts Post Sell-Off

Hasbro Inc. (NASDAQ:HAS) is the third largest toy marker in the world and develops many household brands and games such as the iconic Monopoly board game, G.I. Joe figurines, Play-Doh, and My Little Pony. Hasbro also has exclusive contracts with major movie studios such as Disney and Universal to develop and distribute toys. Hasbro develops toys for many of the multi-billion dollar movie franchises such as Marvel Universe, Star Wars, Disney Princesses, Frozen, Transformers and Jurassic World. Throughout 2017, Hasbro has witnessed a bullish run, up nearly 27% year-to-date however the stock sold off from its 52-week high of $116 to $93 or a 20% slide after reporting it most recent quarterly results. Hasbro has many catalysts in the near term with major movie franchises coming into the fray with upcoming Disney releases: Thor: Ragnarok and Star Wars: The Last Jedi to round out 2017. In 2018, Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, Star Wars Han Solo spinoff and Ant-Man and The Wasp to highlight a few major movies. Taking into account Hasbro’s growth, back-half of the year catalysts, trading at a P/E of ~20, boasting a 2.4% yield and initiatives within Hasbro Studios to propel growth further presents a compelling buy after this recent sell-off.

Major Disney Catalysts Ahead

With Q3 well under way and Q4 on the horizon (historically Hasbro’s strongest quarters), I think Hasbro can produce strong quarters moving into the back half of the year. It’s noteworthy to point out that Hasbro has exclusive rights with Disney to produce Marvel Comics and Star Wars toys which last through 2020 and Hasbro is also the licensed doll maker for the Disney Princess line (Moana and Frozen are included) which started on January 1st, 2016 (Figure 1). Continue reading "Hasbro - Future Catalysts Post Sell-Off"

Political Policy Changes Redefining One Industry and Creating Massive Opportunity

Matt Thalman - INO.com Contributor - ETFs


This summer investors have witnessed firsthand how political policy changes can affect commodity and equity prices. In July both France and the United Kingdom announced it would ban the sale of diesel and gasoline powered cars by the year 2040. Other countries like Norway and India have set goals of even earlier dates to no longer have oil based vehicles sold by 2025 and 2030.
India had even taken it one step further and announced that not only will gasoline vehicles not be sold after 2030, but all gasoline vehicles will need to be replaced with electric and battery powered vehicles by that year.

The Netherlands wants to switch to electric vehicles by 2025 while Germany intends to make the change by 2030, but neither has set these plans in written law. But, the most notable announcement comes from China, a country that has over 300 million registered vehicles. Chinese authorities have not yet set a deadline for the end of sales of internal-combustion vehicles, but they have made it clear that they are working on a timetable.

While the U.S. and some of the other leading countries around the world have yet to come out and formally announce a date of when internal combustion engines will no longer be allowed, many believe there will come a day that all first world countries have such a ban.

So from an investing perspective, cashing in on this opportunity is simply just buying investments today and waiting. Continue reading "Political Policy Changes Redefining One Industry and Creating Massive Opportunity"

Hurricanes Delivered A One-Two Punch To OPEC

Robert Boslego - INO.com Contributor - Energies


OPEC’s grand plan to cut production to drain blotted global oil inventories was a miserable failure in the first half of 2017. Total OECD stocks actually rose by about 75 million barrels by end-June from when the deal went into effect beginning in January.

HE Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo, OPEC Secretary General
HE Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo, OPEC Secretary General (c), with Mr. Nader Sultan, Director of the Oxford Energy Seminar (r), and Professor Roger Ainsworth, Master of St Catherine's College. Source: OPEC

But seasonal oil demand shifted into high gear in July and August. Inventories in the U.S., the largest oil consumer and the most data-transparent country in the world, dropped about 35 million barrels, given record-high demand for crude at U.S. refineries and relatively strong mid-summer product consumption.

This brief hiatus to OPEC’s failure to drain stocks in the first half of 2017 was already set to reverse when refineries performed their fall maintenance, reducing crude demand, and the summer driving season came to a close. But the two hurricanes, Harvey and Irma, accelerated the demand-destruction process.

About 3.2 million barrels a day (mmbd) of refinery throughputs were reduced by the Gulf hurricane, while petroleum product demand dropped 1.5 mmbd from the prior week. The impact of Irma on Florida and elsewhere in the Southeast is still uncertain and ongoing. Goldman Sachs has estimated that U.S. petroleum product demand may be nearly 900,000 b/d lower in September, and 300,000 b/d lower in October, as a result of the storms. Crude demand may average another million barrels per day lower due to problems reported at some refineries. Continue reading "Hurricanes Delivered A One-Two Punch To OPEC"

Gold & Silver: Beware Of Correction

Aibek Burabayev - INO.com Contributor - Metals


What goes up should come down. The precious metals are in a good bullish move, but one should be prepared for the possible downside corrections ahead as the natural phases of market cycles change again and again.

Chart 1. Gold Daily: Channel’s Top Hurdle

Daily Gold Chart
Chart courtesy of tradingview.com

When it comes to money, people start to excel in math, even if they didn’t in school. And so did I when it came to the market analysis, I started to understand both the beauty and power of geometry in the trends even though I didn’t like this subject in the school.

The price of gold made a tiny puncture on the upper side of the blue ascending channel but then retraced to close below it It’s another illustration of how powerful the trend channels can be. However, even if it gets broken, again, it will add more value as evidence of an even stronger price move.

There's almost $17 left for gold to hit the previous major top, but it vanished behind the channel’s top as does a setting sun behind the mountains. What’s next? It’s the perpetual question in the markets. Continue reading "Gold & Silver: Beware Of Correction"

Initiating a Position, Generating Income or Lowering Cost Basis - Covered Puts

Leveraging options to supplement portfolio returns can make a meaningful impact on overall returns, especially over the long-term. Here, I’ll focus on covered puts, covered in the sense that one is backing his option contract with cash on hand. This strategy generates income in the form of a premium that’s received by the option seller. A topic that’s rarely covered is the different objectives or strategies and what to do about shares that are assigned from a covered put contract. Here, I’ll focus on covered puts and discuss the strategy involved before selling a put contract, objectives when engaging in these put options and if/when shares from the contract are assigned. Continue reading "Initiating a Position, Generating Income or Lowering Cost Basis - Covered Puts"