Ford Motor Co. held their virtual annual shareholder meeting on May 11th, 2017. During the meeting, an election of members to the Board of Directors ...

Will CMG be the next VRX for Bill Ackman? Ackman’s Pershing Square hedge fund has already positioned itself to dump its CMG stake. However, CMG is finally showing signs of life. Chipotle (NYSE: CMG ) is now one of the major focuses of activist investor Bill Ackman after Pershing Square dumped its Valeant Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: VRX ) stake. Ackman showed he has the patience to wait out a turnaround, as exhibited with VRX. However, Ackman is cleaning up his portfolio.

At $55, DineEquity Is Ripe For An Activist Hedge Fund To Wade In Apr.17.17 Long/short equity, bonds, special situations, growth at reasonable price Summary I write to recommend a long position in shares of DineEquity at $54.59. I would argue its valuation is too cheap, and an activist hedge fund, eventually, will notice, as its IHOP franchise is a phenomenal business...

Activist Starboard Value exits their position in Macy's. The stock has fallen significantly over the last 2 years. But if you haven't been along for the ride, and if you haven't considered the thesis, "it's new to you". One man's trash is another's treasure. We still like Macy's. By Parke Shall Activist investor Starboard Value exited their position in Macy's (NYSE: M ) late last week...

Activist investor Bill Ackman has been little help for CMG. Instead, CMG needs to be its own activist with marketing spend and food safety investments. Ackman has board seats but no apparent long-term plan. Chipotle (NYSE: CMG ) is still too cheap. Or is it? The stock is down almost 50% from its 2015 high. And instead of hitting $1,000 a share as many analysts expected, we're now closer to $100. The fast casual restaurant can't seem to "recover" from the 2015 e-coli outbreak...

Procter & Gamble has been undergoing a transformation program whereby it divested many of its non-core, less profitable brands to focus on its dominant, most profitable brands. Just as the company approaches the end of transformative activities, an activist investor emerges to exert additional pressure on it. Cost reduction efforts, however, continue.

Corporate earnings season may be winding down, but the real earnings season—annual 10-K filing season—starts today. Successful value investors such as Warren Buffett know that it’s essential to read 10-Ks. It's the only way to reverse accounting distortions and calculate true return on invested capital (ROIC). The combination of computerized processing power and human expertise allows us to provide investors with the most accurate research from the “real” earnings season...

Summary CSX is battling back against Bill Ackman protege Paul Hilal. The rail company has bought itself some additional time - calling a special meeting to allow shareholders to vote on the activist’s proposal. The likely path is that CSX "goes around" the activist to bring in rail expert Hunter Harrison. CSX (NYSE: CSX ) is pushing back at activist investor Paul Hilal's Mantle Ridge, which owns 4.9% of the railroad company...

Floor & Decor has again filed its intention to go public, intending to raise $150 million in an IPO. The company is growing rapidly while managing its financial performance well. Management sees a 400 store market opportunity vs. its current 71 store footprint. I like the company's prospects and will provide an update when we know more about its IPO valuation expectations...

Silicon Valley hubris seeks third-class vote-less stockholder. Snap Inc. (Pending: SNAP ), the parent company of SnapChat, filed for an IPO on Thursday...

BMY has fallen on hard times of late, one of the weakest performers in healthcare. However, activist JANA Partners is quietly lurking. What will be the catalyst for JANA to finally get more involved? Bristol-Myers (NYSE: BMY ) has activist investor Barry Rosenstein and his JANA Partners as a shareholder. JANA hasn't announced any plans, or even considered the stake activist. Still, JANA could be playing wait-and-see...

It is all about incentives — and reining in stock buybacks. Pay executives on business — not stock — performance. Focus on gross profit and revenue goals — not earnings per share. The fact is, CEO compensation has gone completely haywire...

Johnson & Johnson is at a $317 billion market cap. Which means it might be too big to grow, having underperformed for years. The only question is will a major activist step up or will JNJ become its own activist? It appears that it wil take a major activist to shake things up at the $300 billion-plus market cap healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ ).

If high levels of insider selling is bad, what about high levels of insider resigning? Jack Dorsey continues to consolidate his power as CEO to run Twitter as a glorified chatroom. Twitter needs a new CEO, otherwise it’s a $12 stock. Again, Twitter (NYSE: TWTR ) needs a new CEO. As I've noted , ideally, Jack steps down (or gets fired - more likely) from TWTR in 2017 and runs Square (NYSE: SQ ) full-time. By all accounts, there's no buyout coming. But who can oust Jack Dorsey?

Yahoo and Verizon continue to jockey for position with one another after the latest data breach revelations. Sell side analysts seem to think the deal will go through, but at a lower price. We're slightly more skeptical. No matter what the outcome, Yahoo shareholders remain the losers and this entire ordeal is a great reminder of why not to own Yahoo stock now, or going forward...

President-elect Donald Trump's promised rollback of stiffer banking-industry rules implemented after the financial crisis eight years ago could easily get bogged down in regulatory agencies or Congress. European officials may erect competitive barriers that might protect the region's weakened banks from market-share intrusions by U.S. investment banks...

The pace of new consumer checking account openings continued to weaken since the company's September 8th announcement with October account openings down 27% from September and down 44% year-over-year. Balances remain fairly flat across deposit accounts (period end deposits for consumer and small business customers down 1% month-to-month but up 7% YoY) and existing customers...

With Berkshire Hathaway sitting on $85 billion in cash the street is abuzz over rumors of the Oracle of Omaha's next big acquisition. Currently, investors are betting that Mondelez is the takeover target of Kraft Heinz. However, when while such a deal might make sense from a superficial level, when you actually look at the math, it just doesn't make sense...

Praxair, Linde close in on deal Dec. 19, 2016 3:29 AM ET | About: Linde AG ADR (LNEGY) | By: Yoel Minkoff , SA News Editor According to various media reports, an agreement on their $65B merger could be announced as early as Wednesday. Initial discussions collapsed in September due to disputes over personnel, headquarters and other details, but Linde ( OTCPK:LNEGY ) is said to have revived talks after Praxair (NYSE: PX ) provided new assurances over jobs and corporate governance.

Twinleaf Management LLC will have a discussion with Truett-Hurst to return value to the shareholders. Alon Brav from Duke University explains that this activist process returns approximately 7%. The activist will work on the capital allocation and the current expenses of the company. A few changes may make the stock price recover. Introduction Truett-Hurst, Inc. (NASDAQ: THST ) was recently targeted by Twinleaf Management LLC...

Activist investor Jeff Smith of Starboard managed to insert 3 people on Depomed’s board. From his track record, he is likely trying to sell the company and make some money off of it quick. Depomed doesn’t want to sell, and is making itself unattractive with pessimistic guidance, despite the nucynta win that makes the company more valuable...

There’s no doubt that TWTR has been yearning for an activist for months. However, it might have to settle for something a bit different. Can CEO @jack become the activist we all need? Shares of Twitter (NYSE: TWTR ) are kicking around $18 a share and are well off the $25 we saw at the height of the buyout talk. Still, TWTR is trading at 5x sales, which is more like a "growth" or social media story. Yet, TWTR is much more of a media company...

Companies that regularly raise their dividend payments show confidence in future earnings growth potential. I monitor dividend increases for stocks on my watch list of dividend growth stocks to identify candidates for further analysis. This past week, 9 companies on my watch list decided to increase their dividends, including one of the stocks I own...

In the aftermath of Donald Trump's election, bank stocks have rallied in anticipation of a looser regulatory environment, driven by his incoming administration's desire to 'dismantle the Dodd-Frank Act.' To wit, the KBW Bank Index is up ...