Investopedia: Can Greif Find A Second Wind In The Second Half?

If you're a company with hefty exposure to industrial markets, these are uncertain times. If you're a company with hefty exposure to European markets, these are scary times. Perhaps it's not so surprising, then, that Greif (NYSE:GEF), a manufacturer of industrial packaging products like steel and plastic drums, is near its 52-week low. With European chemical companies seeming a little more optimistic about the second half of the year, though, maybe this is a stock to consider as a rebound/recovery play.

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Investopedia: Could Best Buy's Founder Take The Company Off The Market?

Electronics retailing giant Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) badly needs stability, and that seems to be exactly what the company is not getting. The company is still looking for a new full-time CEO, preferably one with experience in turning around a retailer, and now the company's founder is stepping away from the company. Now board chair and founder Richard Schulze has elected to step away from the company entirely, instead of staying on the board for another year as had been planned.

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http://stocks.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2012/Could-Best-Buys-Founder-Take-The-Company-Off-The-Market-BBY-AMZN-SHLD-DG0608.aspx

Investopedia: ACE Looks Like A Card Worth Playing In The Insurance Sector

The insurance sector has largely outperformed the S&P 500 over the past year, but that doesn't mean that there still aren't some stocks worth considering as buys today. Among the more interesting names is ACE Limited (NYSE:ACE). Not only is ACE leveraged to hardening markets, but the company's less cyclical mix of business, strong underwriting reputation, good international exposure and strong capital position make this name a good balance of quality and value at today's prices.

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Investopedia: Brown-Forman Another Example Of Overpaying For Safety

As has been the case with other names in the spirits business like Diageo (NYSE:DEO) and Beam (NYSE:BEAM), investors seem comfortable overpaying to own the stock of Brown-Forman (NYSE:BF.B). Certainly there is a growth angle to this story, as the company looks to extend its world-leading share in bourbon to new markets like China. That said, even high single-digit free cash flow growth isn't enough to push the fair value estimate to an attractive level.

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 http://stocks.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2012/Brown-Forman-Another-Example-Of-Overpaying-For-Safety-BF-B-BEAM-DEO-BUD0608.aspx

Investopedia: Smucker A Relatively Interesting Play In Food

As I've mentioned often in recent weeks and months, investors have reacted to the uncertain global growth outlook by bidding up the shares of those stocks and sectors seen as safe and relatively inelastic, and food has been one of the primary targets. While Smucker (NYSE:SJM) does have some challenges from private label competition, and the long-run returns on capital have not been good, the combination of growth, share and valuation makes this a relatively interesting stock to consider today.

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Investopedia: American Superconductor - From A Growth Play To A Survival Survival

Much as investors and so-called "socially responsible" funds seem to like the sector, energy technology really has yet to deliver an established winning company to match a success story like Amgen (Nasdaq:AMGN) in biotech. As has so often been the case, American Superconductor (Nasdaq:AMSC) gave investors a glimpse of a successful future only to see market conditions erode significantly. Where American Superconductor was once an interesting risky growth play on wind power, now the company is simply trying to stay in the game long enough to rebuild its business and participate in the eventual wind power recovery

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Investopedia: American Woodmark Making The Best Of The Worst

When you sell products into the housing market and the housing market is going through its worst stretch in living memory, the rest of the story goes pretty much the way you would expect. From peak to trough, cabinet and vanity maker American Woodmark (Nasdaq:AMWD) saw sales drop more than 50% and free cash flow plunge into the red.

That said, American Woodmark hasn't really done any worse than rivals like Masco (NYSE:MAS) or Fortune Brands Home & Security (Nasdaq:FBHS) in terms of market share, and has only had one year of negative free cash flow. With a clean balance sheet and major placement in both Home Depot (NYSE:HD) and Lowe's (NYSE:LOW), this may be a "when, not if" recovery story that could pay off for patient investors.

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http://stocks.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2012/American-Woodmark-Making-The-Best-Of-The-Worst-AMWD-MAS-FBHS-HD0607.aspx

Investopedia: How Good Will The Good Times Be For Allied World Assurance?

Even though investment returns are low, and likely to remain so for the near future, many insurance company stocks have come to life over the last six months. One of the strongest has been Allied World Assurance (NYSE:AWH), a relatively small global insurance company that splits its activities among American and international insurance and reinsurance. While there are a lot of fine attributes that make Allied World a solid hold, the momentum in the stock has taken the cheapness out of the name.

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http://stocks.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2012/How-Good-Will-The-Good-Times-Be-For-Allied-World-Assurance-AWH-ACGL-WRB-XL0606.aspx

Investopedia: Premium Foods Not Driving Premium Cash Flow For United Natural

For most of the last three years, shares of United Natural Foods (Nasdaq:UNFI) have pretty consistently flummoxed value-oriented investors. While the margins aren't great for this organic food distributor (nor for food distribution in general), revenue and profit growth has continued to support a pretty healthy valuation and a rising stock price. The market may eventually realize that it's not "different this time" and that the fundamentals of United Natural's business cannot support this valuation, but that's been a money-losing thesis for skeptics so far.

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Investopedia: W.R. Berkley's Valuation Has Caught Up

Specialty insurance company W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) has long been one of my favorite under-valued insurance companies. While it is still one of my favorites in terms of management quality and addressable markets, the stock has been quite strong over the past two years and no longer represents much of a bargain. While long-term investors may wish to hang on, investors considering a new position may have to wait for a better opportunity.

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http://stocks.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2012/W.R.-Berkleys-Valuation-Has-Caught-Up-WRB-ALL-TRV-CB0606.aspx

Seeking Alpha: More Non-Core Investments Almost Certain For WellPoint

Although the sell-side community seemed surprised by WellPoint's (WLP) decision to acquire 1-800 Contacts, it seems likely to me that there are going to be quite a few more deals like this in the future. Health insurance companies (or managed care organizations, if you prefer) are realizing what banks realized long ago - there's just not enough growth in the core market to meet Wall Street's bottomless appetite.

Consequently, growing those businesses that lie outside of regulatory authority is one of the few options left, and it's one that I expect WellPoint and Unitedhealth (UNH) will pursue as aggressively as shareholder sentiment will tolerate.

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More Non-Core Investments Almost Certain For WellPoint

Investopedia: XL Group Seems To Be Back On The Right Track

While it never got as much attention as AIG (NYSE:AIG), XL Group (NYSE:XL) was also seriously stressed during the global credit crisis and found itself very much on the brink. New management and a new business plan has made a great deal of difference, though, and the company looks like it's back on a believable path. Investors have an interesting dilemma with this company, though, as the book value and near-term return on equity path seem to point in different directions as to the company's fair value.

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Investopedia: Quanex Is Going To Take Some Time

There's still not that much joy to be found in the residential building world. While the superstores Home Depot (NYSE:HD) and Lowe's (NYSE:LOW) have seen improvement in same-store sales and companies like Louisiana-Pacific (NYSE:LPX) are well off the lows, the actual building starts numbers still aren't good. That means investors considering the shares of Quanex Building Products (NYSE:NX) need to have some patience. While this company has built impressive share in markets like window and door components, demand still just isn't that strong. Quanex does seem undervalued on the basis of its potential long-run free cash flow, but with so much of that growth coming in the foggy future the risk here is above average.

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http://stocks.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2012/Quanex-Is-Going-To-Take-Some-Time--NX-HD-LOW-LPX0605.aspx

Investopedia: Control May Be Herbalife's Real Long-Term Problem

Herbalife (NYSE:HLF) has gotten knocked around hard lately, as well-known investor David Einhorn has apparently taken some interest in the company and asked some fairly pointed questions. Although I don't agree with those who have interpreted his questions as implying that there is any sort of pyramid scheme at work, that doesn't mean that there aren't inherent issues with the Herbalife model. While there is likely to be sustained ongoing demand for the sort of supplements that Herbalife sells, I wonder whether Herbalife's model takes too much of the company's growth potential out of its own hands.

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Investopedia: TreeHouse Foods And The Good Business / Good Stock Gap

More and more these days, and seemingly especially in sectors like food, there is a growing gap between good companies and good stocks. TreeHouse Foods (NYSE:THS) is another good example. While management has built an increasingly diversified and competitive private label packaged food business, and private label brands continue to gain share at supermarkets, investors seem to be overestimating just how valuable that market exposure is.

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Investopedia: Eni Still Not Getting Much Love

Admittedly these aren't the best of times for energy companies, but it's even worse for those whose assets lean towards natural gas and/or politically dicey areas. Eni (NYSE:E) has never been among the most-loved major energy companies, but valuation is now starting to look quite interesting. With progress on divestitures and big discoveries off the coast of Mozambique, there's still work to do, but management has taken some solid positive steps.

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http://stocks.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2012/Eni-Still-Not-Getting-Much-Love-E-APA-OXY-PBR0604.aspx

Investopedia: Can Aerospace Produce Enough Lift For Carpenter Technology?

Carpenter Technology (NYSE:CRS) has a lot going for it as a company. Few companies can match its technical capabilities (it's just one of three companies capable of making alloys good enough for the demands of jet engines), and there are growth opportunities everywhere for alloys that offer enhanced performance (strength, corrosion resistance, etc.) and less weight. What's more, the company's acquisition of Latrobe and ongoing capacity expansion will significantly boost its capabilities, particularly in premium products.

Yet, for all of those good points, this is a still a cyclical business tied to major end-markets like aerospace and energy. While the surge in commercial aircraft production will almost certainly boost Carpenter's sales and earnings for the next several years, the question is how much of that is already in the stock and whether investors can really expect outsized gains here.

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http://stocks.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2012/Can-Aerospace-Produce-Enough-Lift-For-Carpenter-Technology-CRS-ATI-PCP-BA0601.aspx

Investopedia: The Fresh Market Needs To Be Whole Foods 2.0

It's rare enough to find a retailer that trades at an enterprise value-to-revenue ratio of even 1.0, let alone the 2.17 times of The Fresh Market (NYSE:TFM). Clearly, then, investors are putting a premium on what is one of the few exciting growth stories in food retailing today. While there's a lot to like about this story, including a massively under-penetrated market, accelerating comps and good margins, the bulls seem to have this story well ahead of itself. At these prices, The Fresh Market pretty much has to be the next Whole Foods (NYSE:WFM) to support the implied valuation.

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http://stocks.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2012/The-Fresh-Market-Needs-To-Be-Whole-Foods-2.0-TFM-WMT-WFM-KR0601.aspx

Investopedia: Premium-Priced athenahealth Leaves Little Room For Error

athenahealth (Nasdaq:ATHN) offers another example of how it's important to separate a company from its stock. From the perspective of an operating company, there are a lot of positive things going on at this provider of software and services to medical practices. From a stock perspective, though, expectations are already red-hot and success is taken as a given, leaving little on the table for the future and significantly increasing the risk that any future earnings shortfall will be met with a painful sell-off in the shares.

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Investopedia: For Joy Global, It's No Longer "If" Or "When", But "How Long?"

Between the cautious comments from companies like Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) and Cummins (NYSE:CMI), the economic and company reports coming from China and the worsening conditions in the mining sector, there's really no doubt left that the market for mining machinery has slowed. Joy Global (NYSE:JOY) echoed that, as solid second quarter results were overshadowed by lower guidance. Now the question is no longer about when Joy Global will see the slowdown, but how deep it will be and how long it will last.

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