I am a big proponent of paying down that ugly mortgage beast as soon as is practical. But, before you go cutting a check to the bank, there is a pecking order of financial priorities you need to address before you consider tackling your mortgage.
In order of importance, here are the places you need to put your financial attention first:
Take The Cards Off The Table: Pay off all credit cards with high interest rates. Consider the huge discrepancy between credit cards with interest rates of 13% ��23%, and a 4% mortgage interest rate.
Top High Dividend Companies To Own For 2015: Controladora Vuela Compania de Aviacion SAB de CV (VLRS)
Controladora Vuela Compania de Aviacion SAB de CV (Volaris Aviation Holding Company) is a Mexico-based company principally engaged in the airline passenger transportation industry. The Company is a law-cost carrier airline. Controladora Vuela Compania de Aviacion SAB de CV offers direct, point-to-point flights. The Company serves through secondary, lower cost airports and provides a single class of service. The Company utilizes such aircraft as the Airbus A319 and A320 families, among others. The Company has such subsidiaries as Comercializadora Volaris SA de CV, Servicios Corporativos Volaris SA de CV, Concesionaria Vuela Compania de Aviacion SAPI de CV, Deutsche Bank Mexico SA Trust 1484, among others. Advisors' Opinion:- [By John Udovich]
When most American investors think of discount airline stocks, they probably think of relatively large capped Southwest Airlines Co (NYSE: LUV)�or sort of small cap�JetBlue Airways Corporation (NASDAQ: JBLU) rather than�small cap Controladora Vuela Co Avcn SA CV (NYSE: VLRS) which owns Volaris���a discount airline serving the�Mexican market. However, any investor who has read Benjamin Graham�� Intelligent Investor might want to remember his sage advice about avoiding airline stocks���mainly because airlines were such a new and unproven sector that had yet to make money. But could Controladora Vuela Co Avcn SA CV actually be an airline stock worth owning?
Top Heal Care Stocks To Invest In 2014: Horizon Pharma Inc (HZNP)
Horizon Pharma, Inc. (Horizon), incorporated on March 23, 2010, is a biopharmaceutical company that develops and commercializes medicines to target unmet therapeutic needs in arthritis, pain and inflammatory diseases. On April 23, 2011, the United States Food and Drug Administration, approved DUEXIS (formerly HZT-501), a tablet formulation containing a fixed-dose combination of ibuprofen and famotidine in a single pill. The Company�� other product, LODOTRA (NP-01), is a programmed release formulation of low-dose prednisone that is marketed in Europe by the Company�� distribution partner, Mundipharma International Corporation Limited (Mundipharma). As of December 31, 2010, Horizon completed multiple Phase III clinical trials of LODOTRA. In addition to these product candidates, the Company has a pipeline of earlier-stage product candidates to treat pain-related diseases and chronic inflammation. On April 1, 2010, Horizon effected a recapitalization and acquisition pursuant to which Horizon Pharma, Inc. became a holding company, that operates through its wholly owned subsidiaries, Horizon Pharma USA, Inc. (formerly Horizon Therapeutics, Inc.) and Horizon Pharma AG (formerly Nitec Pharma AG (Nitec)).
DUEXIS
DUEXIS is a combination of 800 milligram ibuprofen and 26.6 milligram famotidine in a single pill and is indicated for the relief of signs and symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and osteoarthritis (OA), and to decrease the risk of developing upper gastrointestinal (GI), ulcers in patients who are taking ibuprofen for those indications. The Company has completed two Phase III clinical trials in a total of over 1,500 patients with mild to moderate pain or arthritis that demonstrated a significant reduction in the incidence of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID)-induced upper GI ulcers when treated with DUEXIS versus ibuprofen alone.
LODOTRA
LODOTRA is a programmed release formulation of low-dose prednisone, a well-established drug use! d to inhibit the production of various pro-inflammatory cytokines, which are proteins associated with joint inflammation in RA. LODOTRA has received regulatory approval in Europe for the treatment of moderate to severe, active RA in adults when accompanied by morning stiffness. As of December 31, 2010, the Company had completed two pivotal Phase III clinical trials of LODOTRA in a total of over 600 patients with RA. The first pivotal Phase III trial supported the approval of LODOTRA in Europe in March 2009, where it is approved for marketing in 14 European countries. LODOTRA achieved significant results and met the primary endpoint in each of the two pivotal Phase III clinical trials. Its LODOTRA product was developed and is owned by Horizon Pharma AG. As of December 31, 2010, the Company markets LODOTRA in Europe through three separate agreements. Pursuant to two separate agreements, it granted Merck Serono GmbH and Merck GesmbH, an affiliate of Merck Serono, the rights to distribute and market LODOTRA in each of Germany and Austria, respectively, and pursuant to the third agreement, it granted Mundipharma rights to distribute and market LODOTRA in the rest of Europe. The Company also has a manufacturing and supply agreement with Jagotec AG under which Jagotec or its affiliates manufacture and supply LODOTRA to the Company as bulk tablets.
The Company competes with Pfizer Inc., Pozen Inc., Abbott Laboratories and Amgen Inc.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Jake L'Ecuyer]
Leading and Lagging Sectors
Wednesday morning, the healthcare sector proved to be a source of strength for the market. Leading the sector was strength from Horizon Pharma (NASDAQ: HZNP) and Pernix Therapeutics Holdings (NASDAQ: PTX). In trading on Wednesday, telecommunications services shares were relative laggards, down on the day by about 0.39 percent. Top decliners in the sector included Shenandoah Telecommunications Co (NASDAQ: SHEN), off 3.3 percent, and CalAmp (NASDAQ: CAMP), down around 2.4 percent. - [By Monica Gerson]
Horizon Pharma (NASDAQ: HZNP) shares dropped 5.29% to $12.90 in pre-market trading after the company reported Q4 results. Horizon Pharma posted a quarterly loss of $0.04 per share on revenue of $30.10 million. However, analysts were expecting a loss of $0.08 per share on revenue of $32.18 million.
- [By Jayson Derrick]
Analysts at Piper Jaffray downgraded Horizon Pharma (NASDAQ: HZNP) to Neutral from Overweight with a price target lowered to $9 from a previous $22. Shares lost 9.67 percent, closing at $8.27.
- [By Lisa Levin]
Horizon Pharma (NASDAQ: HZNP) shares gained 24.15% to $18.23 after the company announced its plans to acquire privately held Vidara Therapeutics International for around $660 million.
Top Heal Care Stocks To Invest In 2014: UnitedHealth Group Incorporated(UNH)
UnitedHealth Group Incorporated provides healthcare services in the United States. Its Health Benefits segment offers consumer-oriented health benefit plans and services to national employers, public sector employers, mid-sized employers, small businesses, and individuals; and non-employer based insurance options for purchase by individuals. It also provides health and well-being services for individuals aged 50 and older; and for services dealing with chronic disease and other specialized issues for older individuals, as well as health plans for the beneficiaries of acute and long-term care Medicaid plans. This segment offers its services through a network of 730,000 physicians and other health care professionals, and 5,300 hospitals. Its OptumHealth segment provides health, financial, and ancillary services and products that assist consumers through personalized health management solutions; benefit administration, and clinical and network management; health-based financi al services; behavioral solutions; and specialty benefits, such as dental, vision, life, critical illness, short-term disability, and stop-loss product offerings. The company?s Ingenix segment offers database and data management services, software products, publications, consulting and actuarial services, business process outsourcing services, and pharmaceutical data consulting and research services. Its Prescription Solutions segment provides integrated pharmacy benefit management services comprising retail network pharmacy contracting and management, claims processing, mail order pharmacy services, specialty pharmacy, benefit design consultation, rebate contracting and management, drug utilization review, formulary management programs, disease therapy management, and adherence programs to employer groups, union trusts, managed care organizations, Medicare-contracted plans, Medicaid plans, and third party administrators. The company was founded in 1974 and is based in Minne tonka, Minnesota.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Reuters]
HealthCare.gov/AP The White House official brought in to fix the U.S. government website created to enable Americans to buy insurance under President Barack Obama's health care law said Friday that HealthCare.gov will be working smoothly for most users by the end of November. Jeffrey Zients told reporters in a conference call that Quality Software Services, or QSSI, will serve as a general contractor to oversee the repairs. The website hasn't had a technology company overseeing the entire project. Instead, the government decided early on that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services would serve as the system integrator. The company, a unit of health insurer UnitedHealth Group (UNH), already has a technology contract related to the website and testified on Thursday to a congressional panel about problems with the system. QSSI produced the federal data hub and a software tool for creating online consumer accounts, which was at the center of early logjam problems. Online insurance exchanges were launched on Oct. 1 under the 2010 Affordable Care Act, often called "Obamacare," to offer health care insurance plans to millions of uninsured Americans. But many Americans have experienced error messages and long waits in trying to sign on to HealthCare.gov, which has become a political embarrassment for Obama.
- [By Lauren Pollock]
UnitedHealth Group Inc.(UNH) projected 2014 earnings and revenue below analysts expectations ahead of its annual investor conference in New York. The managed-care provider in October had said the planned reductions in government funding for Medicare Advantage and other provisions of the health law would affect its 2014 earnings.
- [By Dan Caplinger]
UnitedHealth (NYSE: UNH ) has climbed 2.1% as the long-awaited state health exchanges under Obamacare finally start to take shape. As Fool contributor Sean Williams noted last week, the newly unveiled California exchange included neither UnitedHealth nor many other major insurance companies, raising concerns about whether the program will really deliver the rise in profitable policyholders that some investors were looking for. Some insurance peers have already started to cut their internal growth projections, but for now at least, investors don't appear to be too concerned.
- [By Keith Speights]
UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH ) looks to be firing on nearly all cylinders in 2013. The nation's largest health insurer reported strong second-quarter earnings before the market opened today. Shares shot up 5% in early trading. Here are the highlights from UnitedHealth's results.
Top Heal Care Stocks To Invest In 2014: EDGAR Online Inc.(EDGR)
EDGAR Online, Inc. creates and distributes financial data and public filings for equities, mutual funds, and other publicly traded assets worldwide. The company?s data products include access to SEC filings in various formats, standardized and as-reported fundamental financial data, annual and quarterly financial statements, insider trades, institutional holdings, initial and secondary public offerings, Form 8-K disclosures, electronic prospectuses, and other investment instrument disclosure information. Its data solutions comprise the configuration of its data products; conversion of data from unstructured content into XML, extensible business reporting language (XBRL), and PDF formats; and storage and delivery of data and custom feeds, and tools to access information. The company delivers its data and analysis products through online subscriptions, embedded in other Web sites, and through redistributors. It also provides various end-user subscription services, including I-Metrix, which delivers a Web only service; I-Metrix Professional that allows a user to do in-depth analysis through the Web and a Microsoft Excel add-in; EDGAR Pro, which offers financial data, stock ownership, public offering data sets, and advanced search tools; and EDGAR Access, a retail product, which is available through single-seat credit card purchase. In addition, the company provides a mechanism that helps customers in converting financial statements into XBRL for filing with the SEC and other regulators. It serves generally financial, corporate, and advisory professionals who work in investment funds, asset management firms, insurance companies and banks, stock exchanges, and government agencies; and accounting firms, law firms, corporations, or individual investors. The company was formerly known as Cybernet Data Systems, Inc. and changed its name to EDGAR Online, Inc. in January 1999. EDGAR Online, Inc. was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Rockville, Ma ryland.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Bill Smith]
FDS operates in a highly competitive industry, some with more resources. Their competitors include:
Thomson Reuters Corp. (TRI)BloombergInteractive (IDC)MSCI Inc. (MXB)Morningstar Inc. (MORN)Track Data Corp. (TRAC)Edgar Online (EDGR)McGraw-Hill (MHP )
No comments:
Post a Comment