Porter's 5 Forces Analysis

The model originated from Michael E. Porter's 1980 book "Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and
Competitors." Since then, it has become a frequently used tool for analyzing a company's industry structure and its
corporate strategy.
In his book, Porter identified five competitive forces that shape every single industry and market. These forces help us to
analyze everything from the intensity of competition to the profitability and attractiveness of an industry. Figure 1 shows
the relationship between the different competitive forces.

Figure 1
1. Threat of New Entrants - The easier it is for new companies to enter the industry, the more cutthroat competition
there will be. Factors that can limit the threat of new entrants are known as barriers to entry. Some examples
include:
o Existing loyalty to major brands
o Incentives for using a particular buyer (such as frequent shopper programs)
o High fixed costs
o Scarcity of resources
o High costs of switching companies
o Government restrictions or legislation
2. Power of Suppliers - This is how much pressure suppliers can place on a business. If one supplier has a large
enough impact to affect a company's margins and volumes, then it holds substantial power. Here are a few
reasons that suppliers might have power:
o There are very few suppliers of a particular product
o There are no substitutes
o Switching to another (competitive) product is very costly
o The product is extremely important to buyers - can\'t do without it
o The supplying industry has a higher profitability than the buying industry
3. Power of Buyers - This is how much pressure customers can place on a business. If one customer has a large
enough impact to affect a company's margins and volumes, then the customer hold substantial power. Here are a
few reasons that customers might have power:
o Small number of buyers
o Purchases large volumes
o Switching to another (competitive) product is simple
o The product is not extremely important to buyers; they can do without the product for a period of time
o Customers are price sensitive
4. Availability of Substitutes - What is the likelihood that someone will switch to a competitive product or service?
If the cost of switching is low, then this poses a serious threat. Here are a few factors that can affect the threat of
substitutes:

o The main issue is the similarity of substitutes. For example, if the price of coffee rises substantially, a
coffee drinker may switch over to a beverage like tea.
o If substitutes are similar, it can be viewed in the same light as a new entrant.
 5. Competitive Rivalry - This describes the intensity of competition between existing firms in an industry. Highly
competitive industries generally earn low returns because the cost of competition is high. A highly competitive
market might result from:

o Many players of about the same size; there is no dominant firm

o Little differentiation between competitors products and services
o A mature industry with very little growth; companies can only grow by stealing customers away from
competitors
The Industry Handbook: The Airline Industry
Few inventions have changed how people live and experience the world as much as the invention of the airplane. During
both World Wars, government subsidies and demands for new airplanes vastly improved techniques for their design and
construction. Following the World War II, the first commercial airplane routes were set up in Europe. Over time, air travel
has become so commonplace that it would be hard to imagine life without it. The airline industry, therefore, certainly has
progressed. It has also altered the way in which people live and conduct business by shortening travel time and altering
our concept of distance, making it possible for us to visit and conduct business in places once considered remote. (For
more on the airline industry, read Is That Airline Ready For Lift-Off?)
The airline industry exists in an intensely competitive market. In recent years, there has been an industry-wide shakedown,
which will have far-reaching effects on the industry's trend towards expanding domestic and international services. In the
past, the airline industry was at least partly government owned. This is still true in many countries, but in the U.S. all major
airlines have come to be privately held.
The airline industry can be separated into four categories by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT):
 International - 130+ seat planes that have the ability to take passengers just about anywhere in the world.
Companies in this category typically have annual revenue of $1 billion or more.
 National - Usually these airlines seat 100-150 people and have revenues between $100 million and $1 billion.
 Regional - Companies with revenues less than $100 million that focus on short-haul flights.
 Cargo - These are airlines generally transport goods.
Airport capacity, route structures, technology and costs to lease or buy the physical aircraft are significant in the airline
industry. Other large issues are:
 Weather - Weather is variable and unpredictable. Extreme heat, cold, fog and snow can shut down airports and
cancel flights, which costs an airline money.
 Fuel Cost - According to the Air Transportation Association (ATA), fuel is an airline's second largest expense.
Fuel makes up a significant portion of an airline's total costs, although efficiency among different carriers can vary
widely. Short haul airlines typically get lower fuel efficiency because take-offs and landings consume high
amounts of jet fuel.
 Labor - According to the ATA, labor is the airline's No.1 cost; airlines must pay pilots, flight attendants, baggage
handlers, dispatchers, customer service and others.
Key Ratios/Terms
Available Seat Mile = (total # of seats available for transporting passengers) X (# of miles flown during period)
Revenue Passenger Mile = (# of revenue-paying passengers) X (# of mile flown during the period)
Revenue Per Available Seat Mile = (Revenue)
(# of seats available)
Air Traffic Liability (ATL): An estimate of the amount of money already received for passenger ticket sales and cargo
transportation that is yet to be provided. It is important to find out this figure so you can remove it from quoted revenue
figures (unless they specifically state that ATL was excluded).
Load Factor: This indicator, compiled monthly by the Air Transport Association (ATA), measures the percentage of
available seating capacity that is filled with passengers. Analysts state that once the airline load factor exceeds its break-
even point, then more and more revenue will trickle down to the bottom line. Keep in mind that during holidays and
summer vacations load factor can be significantly higher, therefore, it is important to compare the figures against the
same period from the previous year.
Analyst Insight
Airlines also earn revenue from transporting cargo, selling frequent flier miles to other companies and up-selling in flight
services. But the largest proportion of revenue is derived from regular and business passengers. For this reason, it is
important that you take consumer and business confidence into account on top of the regular factors that one should
consider like earnings growth and debt load. (For more about the consumer confidence survey, see Economic Indicators:
Consumer Confidence Index.)
Business travelers are important to airlines because they are more likely to travel several times throughout the year and
they tend to purchase the upgraded services that have higher margins for the airline. On the other hand, leisure travelers
are less likely to purchase these premium services and are typically very price sensitive. In times of economic uncertainty
or sharp decline in consumer confidence, you can expect the number of leisure travelers to decline.
It is also important to look at the geographic areas that an airline targets. Obviously, more market share is better for a
particular market, but it is also important to stay diversified. Try to find out the destination to which the majority of an
airline's flights are traveling. For example, an airline that sends a high number of flights to the Caribbean might see a
dramatic drop in profits if the outlook for leisure travelers looks poor.
A final key area to keep a close eye on is costs. The airline industry is extremely sensitive to costs such as fuel, labor and
borrowing costs. If you notice a trend of rising fuel costs, you should factor that into your analysis of a company. Fuel
prices tend to fluctuate on a monthly basis, so paying close attention to these costs is crucial.
Porter's 5 Forces Analysis

1. Threat of New Entrants. At first glance, you might think that the airline industry is pretty tough to break into, but
don't be fooled. You'll need to look at whether there are substantial costs to access bank loans and credit. If
borrowing is cheap, then the likelihood of more airliners entering the industry is higher. The more new airlines that
enter the market, the more saturated it becomes for everyone. Brand name recognition and frequent fliers point
also play a role in the airline industry. An airline with a strong brand name and incentives can often lure a
customer even if its prices are higher.
2. Power of Suppliers. The airline supply business is mainly dominated by Boeing and Airbus. For this reason,
there isn't a lot of cutthroat competition among suppliers. Also, the likelihood of a supplier integrating vertically
isn't very likely. In other words, you probably won't see suppliers starting to offer flight service on top of building
airlines.
3. Power of Buyers. The bargaining power of buyers in the airline industry is quite low. Obviously, there are high
costs involved with switching airplanes, but also take a look at the ability to compete on service. Is the seat in one
airline more comfortable than another? Probably not unless you are analyzing a luxury liner like the Concord Jet.
4. Availability of Substitutes. What is the likelihood that someone will drive or take a train to his or her destination?
For regional airlines, the threat might be a little higher than international carriers. When determining this you
should consider time, money, personal preference and convenience in the air travel industry.
5. Competitive Rivalry. Highly competitive industries generally earn low returns because the cost of competition is
high. This can spell disaster when times get tough in the economy.
Key Links
 Federal Aviation Administration - Get the latest regulation news, airport delays, etc.
 AviationNow.com - Information and news on the airline/aerospace industry.
 AirWise.com - Airport and aviation news

The Oil Services Industry

There is no doubt that the oil/energy industry is extremely large. According to the Department of Energy (DOE), fossil
fuels (including coal, oil and natural gas) makes up more than 85% of the energy consumed in the U.S. as of 2008. Oil
supplies 40% of U.S. energy needs. (Visit the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Sources information page for more
insight.)

Before petroleum can be used, it is sent to a refinery where it is physically, thermally and chemically separated into
fractions and then converted into finished products. About 90% of these products are fuels such as gasoline, aviation fuels,
distillate and residual oil, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), coke (not the refreshment) and kerosene. Refineries also
produce non-fuel products, including petrochemicals, asphalt, road oil, lubricants, solvents and wax. Petrochemicals
(ethylene, propylene, benzene and others) are shipped to chemical plants, where they are used to manufacture chemicals
and plastics. (For more insight, read Oil And Gas Industry Primer.)

There are two major sectors within the oil industry, upstream and downstream. For the purposes of this tutorial we will
focus on upstream, which is the process of extracting the oil and refining it. Downstream is the commercial side of the
business, such as gas stations or the delivery of oil for heat.

Oil Drilling and Services

Oil drilling and services is broken into two major areas: drilling and oilfield services.
 Drilling - Drilling companies physically drill and pump oil out of the ground. The drilling industry has always been
classified as highly skilled. The people with the skills and expertise to operate drilling equipment are in high
demand, which means that for an oil company to have these people on staff all the time can cost a lot. For this
reason, most drilling companies are simply contractors who are hired by oil and gas producers for a specified
period of time. (For related reading, see Unearth Profits In Oil Exploration And Production.)

In the drilling industry, there are several different types of rigs, each with a specialized purpose. Some of these
include:
o Land Rigs - Drilling depths ranges from 5,000 to 30,000 feet.
o Submersible Rigs - Used for ocean, lake and swamp drilling. The bottom part of these rigs are
submerged to the sea's floor and the platform is on top of the water.
o Jack-ups - this type of rig has three legs and a triangular platform which is jacked-up above the highest
anticipated waves.
 o Drill Ships - These look like tankers/ships, but they travel the oceans in search of oil in extremely deep
water.

(For more information on the drilling industry, check out on the Rigzone website.)

 Oilfield Services - Oilfield service companies assist the drilling companies in setting up oil and gas wells. In
general these companies manufacture, repair and maintain equipment used in oil extraction and transport. More
specifically, these services can include:
o Seismic Testing - This involves mapping the geological structure beneath the surface.
o Transport Services - Both land and water rigs need to be moved around at some point in time.
o Directional Services - Believe it or not, all oil wells are not drilled straight down, some oil services
companies specialize in drilling angled or horizontal holes.

The energy industry is not any different than most commodity-based industries as it faces long periods of boom and bust.
Drilling and other service firms are highly dependent on the price and demand for petroleum. These firms are some of the
first to feel the effects of increased or decreased spending. If oil prices rise, it takes time for petroleum companies to size
up land, setup rigs, take out the oil, transport it and refine it before the oil company sees any profit. On the other hand, oil
services and drilling companies are the first on the scene when companies decide to start exploring.

Oil Refining
The refining business is not quite as fragmented as the drilling and services industry. This sector is dominated by a small
handful of large players. In fact, much of the energy industry is ruled by large, integrated oil companies. Integrated refers
to the fact that many of these companies look after all factors of production, refining and marketing.

For the most part, refining is a slow and stable business. The large amounts of capital investment means that very few
companies can afford to enter this business. This handbook will try to focus more on oil equipment and services such as
drilling and support services.

Key Ratios/Terms

BTUs: Short for "British Thermal Units." This is the amount of heat required to increase the temperature of one pound of
water by one degree Fahrenheit. Different fuels have different heating values; by quoting the price per BTU it is easier to
compare different types of energy.

Dayrates: Oil and gas drillers usually charge oil producers on a daily work rate. These rates vary depending on the
location, the type of rig and the market conditions. There are plenty of research firms that publish this information. Higher
dayrates are great for drilling companies, but for refiners and distribution companies this means lower margins unless
energy prices are rising at the same rate.

Meterage: Another type of contract that differs from dayrates is one based on how deep the rig drills. These are called
meterage, or footage, contracts. These are less desirable because the depth of the oil deposits are unpredictable; it's
really a gamble on the driller's part.

Downstream: Refers to oil and gas operations after the production phase and through to the point of sale, whether at the
gas pump or the home heating oil truck

Upstream: The grass roots of the oil business, upstream refers to the exploration and production of oil and gas. Many
analysts look at upstream expenditures from previous quarters to estimate future industry trends. For example, a decline
in upstream expenditures usually trickles down to other areas such as transportation and marketing.

OPEC: The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is an intergovernmental organization dedicated to the stability
and prosperity of the petroleum market. OPEC membership is open to any country that is a substantial exporter of oil and
that shares the ideals of the organization. OPEC has 11 member countries. Output quotas placed by OPEC can send
huge shocks throughout the energy markets.

Below is a chart of the world's top exporters of petroleum. OPEC members are denoted by "*". Indonesia and Qatar are
also members, but they don't make the top twelve.

Top World Oil Net Exporters, 2006

Country Net Exports (million barrels per day)
1) Saudi Arabia* 8.65
 2) Russia 6.57
3) Norway 2.54
4) Iran* 2.52
5) United Arab Emirates* 2.52
6) Venezuela* 2.20
7) Kuwait* 2.15
8) Nigeria* 2.15
9) Algeria* 1.85
10) Mexico 1.68
11) Libya* 1.52
12) Iraq* 1.43
Source: Energy Information Administration

Analyst Insight
Analysts and investors often disagree on specific investment decisions, but one thing that they do agree on is their
approach to analyzing energy companies. A top down investment approach is almost always the best strategy. We will go
through the top down steps below. (For more insight, read A Top-Down Approach To Investing.)

Economics/Politics
The oil industry is easily influenced by economic and political conditions. If a country is in a recession, fewer products are
being manufactured, not as many people drive to work, take vacations, etc. All of these variables factor into less energy
use. The best time to invest in an oil company is when the economy is firing on all cylinders and oil companies are making
so much money that using excessive amounts of energy themselves has little effect on their bottom line.

Some analysts believe that rather than analyzing energy companies, you should just predict the trend in energy prices.
While more analysis is needed for a prudent investment than simply looking at price trends in oil, it's true that there is a
strong correlation between the performance of energy companies and the commodity price for energy.

Supply and Demand

Oil and gas prices fluctuate on a minute by minute basis, taking a look at the historical price range is the first place you
should look. Many factors determine the price of oil, but it really all comes down to supply and demand. Demand typically
does not fluctuate too much (except in the case of recession), but supply shocks can occur for a number of reasons.
When OPEC meets to determine oil supply for the coming months, the price of oil can fluctuate wildly. Day-to-day
fluctuations should not influence your investment decision in a particular energy company, but long-term trends should be
followed more closely. You can find the latest energy supply/demand statistics at the Energy Information Administration.

Rig Utilization Rates

Another factor that determines supply is the rig utilization rates; its close relationship to oil prices is not a coincidence.
Higher utilization rates mean more revenue and profits. For drilling companies, it is important to take a close look at the
company's rig fleet, because older rigs lack the ability to drill in remote locations or to bore deep holes. Some other factors
to consider are the depth of water that the offshore rigs can drill in, hole depth and horsepower. Higher quality rigs will
have higher utilization rates, especially during weak periods. This will lead to higher revenue growth. Sometimes this is a
double-edged sword; while higher utilization is better, a company that is at its capacity will have difficulty increasing
revenues further.

Contracts
The contracts through which an oil services company is paid also play a large role in supply. Pay close attention to the
dayrates, as falling dayrates can dramatically decrease revenues. The opposite is true should dayrates rise. This is
because many of the drillers' costs are fixed.

Financial Statements
After these wide scale factors have been considered, it's time to get down to the nitty gritty - the financials. And when it
comes to the financials, the same old rules apply to oil services companies. Ideally, revenues and profits will be growing
consistently, just as they do in any quality company. It's worth digging deeper to see if there are any one-time events that
have dramatically increased revenues. Also, the P/E ratio and PEG ratiosshould be comparable to others within the
industry.
On the balance sheet, investors should keep an eye on debt levels. High debt puts a strain on credit ratings, weakening
their ability to purchase new equipment or finance other capital expenditures. Poor credit ratings also make it difficult to
acquire new business. If customers have the choice of going with a company that is strong versus one that is having debt
problems, which do you think they will choose? To do a test for financial leverage, take a look at the debt/equity ratio.
The working capital also tells us whether the company has enough liquid assets to cover short term liabilities. Rating
agencies like Moody's and S&P say 50% is a prudent debt/equity ratio. Companies in more stable markets can afford
slightly higher debt/equity ratios.

If profits are of the utmost importance, then the statement of cash flow is a close second. Oil companies are notorious for
reporting non cash line items in the income statement. For this reason, you should try to decipher the cash EPS. By
stripping away all the non-cash entities you will get a truer number because cash flow cannot be manipulated as easily
as net income can. (For further reading, see Advanced Financial Statement Analysis.)

Porter's 5 Forces Analysis

1. Threat of New Entrants. There are thousands of oil and oil services companies throughout the world, but the
barriers to enter this industry are enough to scare away all but the serious companies. Barriers can vary
depending on the area of the market in which the company is situated. For example, some types of pumping
trucks needed at well sites cost more than $1 million each. Other areas of the oil business require highly
specialized workers to operate the equipment and to make key drilling decisions. Companies in industries such as
these have higher barriers to entry than ones that are simply offering drilling services or support services. Having
ample cash is another barrier - a company had better have deep pockets to take on the existing oil companies.
2. Power of Suppliers. While there are plenty of oil companies in the world, much of the oil and gas business is
dominated by a small handful of powerful companies. The large amounts of capital investment tend to weed out a
lot of the suppliers of rigs, pipeline, refining, etc. There isn't a lot of cut-throat competition between them, but they
do have significant power over smaller drilling and support companies.
3. Power of Buyers. The balance of power is shifting toward buyers. Oil is a commodity and one company's oil or
oil drilling services are not that much different from another's. This leads buyers to seek lower prices and better
contract terms.
4. Availability of Substitutes. Substitutes for the oil industry in general include alternative fuels such as coal, gas,
solar power, wind power, hydroelectricity and even nuclear energy. Remember, oil is used for more than just
running our vehicles, it is also used in plastics and other materials. When analyzing an energy company it is
extremely important to take a close look at the specific area in which the company is operating. Also, companies
offering more obscure or specialized services such as seismic drilling or directional drilling tools are much more
likely to withstand the threat of substitutes. (For more on oil substitutes, see The Biofuels Debate Heats Up.)
5. Competitive Rivalry. Slow industry growth rates and high exit barriers are a particularly troublesome situation
facing some firms. Until quite recently, oil refineries were a particularly good example. For a period of almost 20
years, no new refineries were built in the U.S. Refinery capacity exceeded the product demands as a result of
conservation efforts following the oil shocks of the 1970s. At the same time, exit barriers in the refinery business
are quite high. Besides the scrap value of the equipment, a refinery that does not operate has no value-
adding capability. Almost every refinery can do one thing - produce the refined products they have been designed
for.

Key Links

 Department of Energy - Get the latest regulation news and statistics. You name it, this site has it.
 ODS-Petrodata - Both free and fee-based data on rig counts and other key figures in the oil services industry.
 Rigzone.com - News and statistics on the oil and gas industry.

Precious Metals
The precious metals industry is very capital intensive. Constructing mines and building production facilities requires huge
sums of capital. Long-term survival requires heavy expenditures to finance production and exploration. Technology has
played a big role in the computer and internet industry, but it has also greatly changed the mining industry. Gold is the
most popular precious metal for investors. As you may know, gold is a commodity, and, as such, the price for gold
fluctuates on a daily basis in the commodity markets.

While there is a lot of overlap between the basics of mining gold and silver, the primary focus of here is on the gold market.
Silver is less valuable than gold, and, as such, it is usually discovered either by accident or as a byproduct of
gold/lead/copper mining.

Gold prices are influenced by numerous variables that include fabricator demand, expected inflation, return on assets and
central bank demand. Gold is strongly pegged to supply-and-demand patterns. In general, low prices result in low
production, and high prices result in high production. Market forces determine price. A company's attempt to control costs
is critical to maintaining financial health and production levels in the face of declining gold prices. (For related reading,
see Does It Still Pay To Invest In Gold?)

The metals industry is not vertically integrated like other industries such as oil and energy. In the metals industry, the
companies that mine the gold typically do not refine it, and refiners rarely sell it directly to the public. The industry
encompasses three types of firms:

1. Exploration. These companies have very little in the way of assets. They explore and prove that gold exists
in a particular area. The only major assets owned by exploration firms are the rights to drill and a small
amount of capital, which is needed to conduct drilling and trenching operations.
2. Development. Once a gold deposit is discovered by exploration companies, they either try to become
development firms, or they sell their gold find to development firms. Development firms are those operating
on explored areas that have prove to be mines. The only real difference between development and
exploration is that, for development firms, their area has proved to be a gold deposit.
3. Production. Producer firms are full-fledged mining companies that extract and produce gold from existing
mines; this production can range from a hundred thousand ounces to several million ounces of gold
production per year.

Each operator in the supply chain has its own strengths and weaknesses. Some companies do well at extracting the
metal from the earth, some refine, while others smelt and transform the commodity into a finished product.

Most gold that is mined today is used for jewelry, perhaps because of its beauty, or perhaps because it doesn't rust or
corrode. Other uses for gold include tooth filings, electronics manufacturing and collectibles, but these make up a very
small portion of overall demand.

Unlike other industries, companies in the mining industry come in all shapes and sizes. Much of the production is done by
large blue chip companies, but the exploration side of the industry is full of junior companies looking to hit a home run with
a large gold find. The mining industry has plenty of opportunities for speculators and others for income investors. (To learn
more, read Getting Into The Gold Market.)

Key Ratios/Terms

Mine Production Rates: Serious gold investors follow the Gold Survey very closely, published by Gold Fields Mineral
Services. Each year, it lists the worldwide mine production statistics. Increasing production rates means more supply,
which ultimately means a lower price for gold - if demand remains stable.

Scrap Recovery: Another statistic published in the Gold Survey, scrap recovery refers to the worldwide supply of gold
from sources other than mine production. This includes recovered old jewelry, industrial byproducts, etc. Throughout the
1990s, more than 15% of the world's gold supply came from scrap recovery.

Futures Sales by Producers As you probably know, gold trades in the futures markets. Gold producers are constantly
monitoring the prices in the futures markets because it determines the price at which they can sell their gold. The Gold
Survey lists statistics on producer sales. If producers are selling an increasing amount in the futures market, it could mean
that prices will fall very soon. By purchasing futures contracts the producer "locks-in" a price. Therefore, if the price of gold
falls in future months, it won't affect the producer's bottom line. Conversely, if prices continue to rise after the producer
locks in, they won't be able to capitalize on the higher prices.

Bullion: This denotes gold and silver that is refined and officially recognized as high quality (at least 99.5% pure). It is
usually in the form of bars rather than coins. When you hear of investors or central banks holding gold reserves, it is
usually in the form of bullion.

Ore: This refers to mineralized rock that contains metal. Gold producers mine gold ore and then extract the gold from it
using either chemicals, extreme heat, or some other method. There are different types of ores, of which the most common
are oxide ores and sulphide ores.

Analyst Insight
The price of gold fluctuates on a minute-by-minute basis, so taking a look at the historical price range is the first place you
should look. Many factors determine the price of gold, but it really all comes down to supply and demand. Demand
typically does not fluctuate too much, but supply shocks can send prices either soaring or into the doldrums.

The difference between production costs and the futures price for gold equals the gross profit margins for mining
companies. Therefore, the second place you want to look is the cost of production. The main factors to look at are the
following:

 Location - Where is the gold being mined? Political unrest in developing nations has ruined more than one
mining company. Developing nations might have cheaper labor and mining costs, but the political risks are
huge. If you are risk averse, then look for companies with mines in relatively stable areas of the world. The
costs might be higher, but at least the company knows what it\'s getting into.
 Ore Quality - Ore is mineralized rock that contains metal. Higher quality ore will contain more gold, which is
usually reported as ounces of gold per ton of ore. Generally speaking, oxide ores are better because the rock is
more porous, making it easier to remove the gold.
 Mine Type - The type of mine a company uses is a big factor in production costs. Most underground mines are
more expensive than open pit mines.

Cost of Production
The cost of production is probably the most widely followed measure for analyzing a gold producer. The lower the costs,
the greater the operating leverage, which means that earnings are more stable and less volatile to changes in the price of
gold. For example, a company that has a cash cost around $175/ounce is, for obvious reasons, in a much better position
than one whose cost is $275/ounce. The low-cost producer has much more staying power than the marginal producer. In
fact, if the price of gold declines below $275/ounce, the higher-cost producer would have to stop producing until the price
goes back up. Producers usually publish their cost of production in their annual report; this cost includes everything from
site preparation to milling and refining. It doesn't include exploration costs, financing, or any other administrative expenses
the company might incur.

Aside from looking at costs, investors should carefully look over revenue growth. Revenue is output times the selling price
for gold, so it may fluctuate from year to year. Well-run companies will attempt to hedge against fluctuating gold prices
through the futures markets. Take a look at the revenue fluctuations over the past several years. Ideally, the revenue
growth should be smooth. Companies with revenues that fluctuate widely from year to year are very hard to analyze and
aren't where the smart money goes.

Debt Levels
Investors should keep an eye on debt levels, which are on the balance sheet. High debt puts a strain on credit ratings,
weakening the company's ability to purchase new equipment or finance other capital expenditures. Poor credit ratings
also make it difficult to acquire new businesses. (For related reading, see Debt Reckoning.)

P/E
As a final caveat (beware), never analyze a precious-metals company based on the price-to-earnings ratio. In general, a
high P/E means high projected earnings in the future, but all gold stocks have high P/E ratios. The P/E ratio for a gold
stock doesn't really tell us anything because precious metals companies need to be compared by assets, not earnings.
Unlike buildings and machinery, gold companies have large amounts of gold in their vaults and in mines throughout the
world. Gold on the balance sheet is unlike other capital assets; gold is seen as currency of last resort. Investors are
therefore willing to pay more for a gold company because it is the next best thing to physically holding the gold
themselves.

There are a few valuation techniques that analysts use when comparing various precious metal companies. The most
popular and widely used ratio is market capitalization per ounce of reserves (market cap divided by reserves). This
indicates to investors what they are paying for each ounce of reserves. Obviously, a lower price is better.

Porter's 5 Forces Analysis

1. Threat of New Entrants. Financing is a principal barrier to entry in the precious-metals industry, which is heavily
capital intensive. Constructing mines, production facilities, exploration and development and mining equipment all
require large sums of capital. This capital is required before the mine is in production. Therefore, favorable
financing terms are extremely important. In short, long-term survival in the precious-metal market requires
significant capital.
2. Power of Suppliers. The only supply-side issues that miners face deal with government regulations and rules.
The supply of land is plentiful, but gaining approval and permits to mine the land can be difficult, especially if
environmental risks are high.
3. Power of Buyers. Gold is a commodity-based business, so the gold from one company is not that much different
from another's. This translates into buyers seeking lower prices and better contract terms.
4. Availability of Substitutes. Substitutes for the precious metals industry include other precious metals such as
diamonds, silver, platinum, etc. These are worthy substitutes for gold, but they are not as widely accepted as gold.
Gold has the advantage of being standard for a world currency, so a gold bar in the U.S. is worth the same as it is
 in Ecuador. As other forms of precious metals such as diamonds gain popularity, they may also become more
threatening as substitutes.
5. Competitive Rivalry. Gold companies don't compete on price, mainly because the prices are determined by
market forces. But gold companies do compete for land. The backbone of a precious metals company is its
reserves, and the only way to beef up reserves is to explore for good mining areas. Companies go to great
lengths to discover gold deposits, and the discovery is on a first-come-first-serve basis.

Key Links

InfoMine.com - Get the latest news and statistics on mining companies.

Mining USA - Here is more data and information on mining.
Mining Glossary - When you are analyzing a mining company you are bound to come across industry-specific terms
you don't understand

Automobiles
Similar to the invention of the airplane, the emergence of automobiles has had a profound effect on our everyday lives.

The auto manufacturing industry is considered to be highly capital and labor intensive. The major osts for producing and
selling automobiles include:
 Labor - While machines and robots are playing a greater role in manufacturing vehicles, there are still substantial
labor costs in designing and engineering automobiles.
 Materials - Everything from steel, aluminum, dashboards, seats, tires, etc. are purchased from suppliers.
 Advertising - Each year automakers spend billions on print and broadcast advertising; furthermore, they spent
large amounts of money on market research to anticipate consumer trends and preferences.
The auto market is thought to be made primarily of automakers, but auto parts makes up another lucrative sector of the
market. The major areas of auto parts manufacturing are:

 Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) - The big auto manufacturers do produce some of their own parts,
but they can't produce every part and component that goes into a new vehicle. Companies in this industry
manufacture everything from door handles to seats.
 Replacement Parts Production and Distribution - These are the parts that are replaced after the purchase of a
vehicle. Air filters, oil filers and replacement lights are examples of products from this area of the sector.
 Rubber Fabrication - This includes everything from tires, hoses, belts, etc.
In the auto industry, a large proportion of revenue comes from selling automobiles. The parts market, however, is even
more lucrative. For example, a new car might cost $18,000 to buy, but if you bought, from the automaker, all the parts
needed to construct that car, it would cost 300-400% more.

Over and above the labor and material costs we mentioned above, there are other developments in the automobile
industry that you must consider when analyzing an automobile company. Globalization, the tendency of world investment
and businesses to move from national and domestic markets to a worldwide environment, is a huge factor affecting the
auto market. More than ever, it is becoming easier for foreign automakers to enter the North American market. (To read
more about this issue, see The Globalization Debate.)

Competition is the other factor that takes its toll on the auto industry; we will discuss this in more detail below under the
Porter's 5 forces analysis

Key Players
In North America, the automobile production market is dominated by what's known as the Big Three:
 General Motors - Produces Chevrolet, Pontiac, Buick and Cadillac, among others.
 Chrysler - Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge.
 Ford Motor Co - Ford, Lincoln and Volvo.
Two of the largest foreign car manufacturers are:

 Toyota Motor Co
 Honda Motor Co

Key Ratios/Terms

Fleet Sales: Traditionally, these are high-volume sales designated to come from large companies and government
agencies. These sales are almost always at discount prices. In the past several years, auto makers have been extending
fleet sales to small businesses and other associations.
Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate of Sales (SAAR): Most auto makers experience increased sales during the
second quarter (April to June), and sales tend to be sluggish between November and January. For this reason, it is
important to compare sales figures to the same period of the previous year. The adjustment factors are released each
year by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Sales Reports: Many of the large auto makers release their preliminary sales figures from the previous month on a
monthly basis. This can give you an indication of the current trends in the industry.

Day Sales Inventory = Average Inventory

Average Daily Sales

The sales reports (discussed above) are released monthly. Most automakers try to make dealerships hold 60 days worth
of inventory on their lots. Watch out if sales inventory climbs significantly above 60 days worth. Sales fluctuate month-to-
month, but you shouldn't see sustained periods of high inventory.

Analyst Insight
Automobiles depend heavily on consumer trends and tastes. While car companies do sell a large proportion of vehicles to
businesses and car rental companies (fleet sales), consumer sales is the largest source of revenue. For this reason,
taking consumer and business confidence into account should be a higher priority than considering the regular factors like
earnings growth and debt load. (For more about the Consumer Confidence Survey, see Economic Indicators: Consumer
Confidence Index.)

Another caveat of analyzing an automaker is taking a look at whether a company is planning makeovers or complete
redesigns. Every year, car companies update their cars. This is a part of normal operations, but there can be a problem
when a company decides to significantly change the design of a car. These changes can cause massive delays and
glitches, which result in increased costs and slower revenue growth. While a new design may pay off significantly in the
long run, it's always a risky proposition.

For parts suppliers, the life span of an automobile is very important. The longer a car stays operational, the greater the
need for replacement parts. On the other hand, new parts are lasting longer, which is great for consumers, but is not such
good news for parts makers. When, for example, most car makers moved from using rolled steel to stainless steel, the
change extended the life of parts by several years.

A significant portion of an automaker's revenue comes from the services it offers with the new vehicle. Offering lower
financial rates than financial institutions, the car company makes a profit on financing. Extended warranties also factor into
the bottom line. (To read more about this, see Extended Warranties: Should You Take The Bait?)

Greater emphasis on leasing has also helped increase revenues. The advantage of leasing is that it eases consumer
fears about resale value, and it makes the car sound more affordable. From a maker's perspective, leasing is a great way
to hide the true price of the vehicle through financing costs. Car companies, then, are able to push more cars through.
Unfortunately, profiting on leasing is not as easy as it sounds. Leasing requires the automakers to accurately judge the
value of their vehicles at the end of the lease, otherwise they may actually lose money. If you think about it, the automaker
will lose money on the lease if they give the car a high salvage value. A car with a low salvage value at the end of the
lease will simply be bought by the consumer and flipped for a profit.

Porter's 5 Forces Analysis

1. Threat of New Entrants. It's true that the average person can't come along and start manufacturing automobiles.
Historically, it was thought that the American automobile industry and the Big Three were safe. But this did not
hold true when Honda Motor Co. opened its first plant in Ohio. The emergence of foreign competitors with the
capital, required technologies and management skills began to undermine the market share of North American
companies.
2. Power of Suppliers. The automobile supply business is quite fragmented (there are many firms). Many suppliers
rely on one or two automakers to buy a majority of their products. If an automaker decided to switch suppliers, it
could be devastating to the previous supplier's business. As a result, suppliers are extremely susceptible to the
demands and requirements of the automobile manufacturer and hold very little power.
3. Power of Buyers. Historically, the bargaining power of automakers went unchallenged. The American consumer,
however, became disenchanted with many of the products being offered by certain automakers and began
looking for alternatives, namely foreign cars. On the other hand, while consumers are very price sensitive, they
don't have much buying power as they never purchase huge volumes of cars.
4. Availability of Substitutes. Be careful and thorough when analyzing this factor: we are not just talking about the
threat of someone buying a different car. You need to also look at the likelihood of people taking the bus, train or
 airplane to their destination. The higher the cost of operating a vehicle, the more likely people will seek alternative
transportation options. The price of gasoline has a large effect on consumers' decisions to buy vehicles. Trucks
and sport utility vehicles have higher profit margins, but they also guzzle gas compared to smaller sedans and
light trucks. When determining the availability of substitutes you should also consider time, money, personal
preference and convenience in the auto travel industry. Then decide if one car maker poses a big threat as a
substitute.
5. Competitive Rivalry. Highly competitive industries generally earn low returns because the cost of competition is
high. The auto industry is considered to be an oligopoly, which helps to minimize the effects of price-based
competition. The automakers understand that price-based competition does not necessarily lead to increases in
the size of the marketplace; historically they have tried to avoid price-based competition, but more recently the
competition has intensified - rebates, preferred financing and long-term warranties have helped to lure in
customers, but they also put pressure on the profit margins for vehicle sales.
(For further reading, check out Analyzing Auto Stocks.)

Key Links

 Ward's Automotive Reports - A popular publisher of automotive data.

 The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers - Get the latest industry facts, developments, and technological
innovations.
 Automotive Industries - A magazine covering several areas of the auto industry.
 US Council for Automobile Research - The umbrella organization of Daimler Chrysler, Ford and General
Motors created to strengthen the technology base of the domestic auto industry.
The Retailing Industry
All businesses that sell goods and services to consumers fall under the umbrella of retailing, but there are several
directions we can take from here. For starters, there are department stores, discount stores, specialty stores and even
seasonal retailers. Each of these might have their own little quirks; however, for the most part the analysis overlaps to all
areas of retailing. This section of the industry handbook will try to focus more on general retailers and department stores.
(For background reading, see Analyzing Retail Stocks.)

Over the past couple decades, there have been sweeping changes in the general retailing business. What was once
strictly a made-to-order market for clothing has changed to a ready-to-wear market. Flipping through a catalog, picking the
color, size and type of clothing a person wanted to purchase and then waiting to have it sewn and shipped was standard
practice. At the turn of the century some retailers would have a storefront where people could browse. Meanwhile, new
pieces were being sewn or customized in the back rooms.

In some parts of the world, the retail business is dominated by smaller family-run or regionally-targeted stores, but this
market is increasingly being taken over by billion-dollar multinational conglomerates like Wal-Mart and Sears. The larger
retailers have managed to set up huge supply/distribution chains, inventory management systems, financing pacts and
wide scale marketing plans.

Without getting into specific product categories within the retailing industry, the overall segments can be divided into two
categories:
 Hard - These types of goods include appliances, electronics, furniture, sporting goods, etc. Sometimes referred to
as "hardline retailers."
 Soft - This category includes clothing, apparel, and other fabrics.

Each retailer tries to differentiate itself from the competition, but the strategy that the company uses to sell its products is
the most important factor. Here are some different types of retailers:

 Department Stores - Very large stores offering a huge assortment of goods and services.
 Discounters - These also tend to offer a wide array of products and services, but they compete mainly on price.
 Demographic - These are retailers that aim at one particular segment. High-end retailers focusing on wealthy
individuals would be a good example.

Each of these has its own distinct advantages, but it's important to know how these advantages play out. For example,
during tough economic times, the discount retailers tend to outperform the others. The opposite is true when the economy
is thriving. The more successful retailers attempt to combine the characteristics of more than one type of retailer to
differentiate themselves from the competition.

Key Ratios/Terms
Same Store Sales: Used when analyzing individual retailers. It compares sales in stores that have been open for a year
or more. This allows investors to compare what proportion of new sales have come from sales growth compared to the
opening of new stores. This is important because although new stores are good, there eventually comes a saturation point
at which future sales growth comes at the expense of losses at other locations. Same store sales are also commonly
referred to as "comps."

Sales per Square Foot: Sales

Square Footage
Store space is considered to be a productive asset and the key to profitability. Successful companies generate as much
sales volume as possible out of each square foot of store space. More recently, analysts have created modifications of
this concept by looking at a retailers' gross margin per square foot.

Inventory Turnover: This ratio shows how many times the inventory of a firm is sold and replaced over a specific period.
Generally calculated as: Sales
Inventory
But, may also be calculated as: Cost of Goods Sold
Average Inventory

Although the first calculation is more frequently used, COGS may be substituted because sales are recorded at market
value while inventories are usually recorded at cost. Also, average inventory may be used instead of the ending inventory
to help minimize seasonal factors. This ratio should be compared against similar retail companies or the industry average.
A low turnover might imply poor sales and, therefore, excess inventory. A high ratio implies either strong sales or
ineffective buying from suppliers. (For related reading, see

Consumer Confidence: The Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) is put out by the Consumer Confidence Board around
the middle of each month. The Consumer Confidence Survey is based on a sample of 5,000 U.S. households and is
considered to be one of the most accurate indicators of confidence. Increasing confidence means more spending and
borrowing for consumers - a positive for retailers. (To learn more about this measure, see Economic Indicators To Know:
Consumer Confidence Index.)

Personal Income & Disposable Income: Every quarter, the Bureau of Economic Analysis releases the latest income
data for U.S. citizens. There is a high correlation between retail sales data and the changes in personal income. (For more
insight, see Economic Indicators: Personal Income and Outlays.)

Analyst Insight
As we mentioned earlier, the store type and the strategy that retailers use plays a big role in how well the company
performs. The first thing to take a look at is what segment of the retail industry the company is situated in. Is the company
a discounter? Department store? Specialty retailer? The retail category to which the company belongs also helps
determine the following details about the company:
 Competitors - The number and size of direct competitors is important. Ideally, you want the company to have as
little competition as possible, but this rarely happens. Determine who the direct competitors are and how they are
all positioned in the market. A smaller regional discount store might find it tough to compete with new Wal-mart
stores opening up every month. Take a look at the big picture, find out what differentiates the company from its
competitors. Do they have better prices, service, or offer higher quality goods than their competition? Grocery
stores might find it hard to differentiate themselves from competitors: after all, an apple is an apple. Higher-end
retailers, however, may have an easier time as they try to compete on service or quality.
 Size of the Market - Determining the overall size of the market gives us an indication of the potential for the
market. If you had the choice between a company with a 25% share of a $10 million market or a 25% share of a
$1 billion market, which one would you chose?
 Other Factors - Some analysts even go as far as evaluating the retail strategy that the companies use. For
example, does the company have a fresh look? Are their stores clean, bright and fun to shop in? Swedish
retailer Ikea has done an excellent job of designing their stores for visual appeal, and quite possibly it has
equated to very strong sales.
Also, what are the store demographics? Does the retailer appeal more to younger people (who don't have the money), or
does it appeal to the parents (who do have the money).

The performance of the economy as a whole obviously has a great impact on the retailing industry. Retailer profits have a
close correlation with the overall performance of the economy. Looking at the trends for growth in gross domestic
product (GDP), inflation, consumer confidence, personal income and interest rates are extremely important when thinking
about investing in the retail industry. You might not think that your shopping habits are sensitive to interest rate
fluctuations, but they are. While a 50-basis-point drop in interest rates might not give you the sudden inkling to go drop
$1,000 at Macy's, for the economy as a whole, it has a big effect on spending patterns. (For more insight on this effect,
see How Interest Rates Affect The Stock Market.)

After looking at the macroeconomic factors and the industry as a whole, it is time to delve into the financial statements.
The biggest problem for analyzing these companies is the lack of consistency between accounting procedures. It takes a
careful eye when comparing performance ratios and figures from one company to the next. For example, some
companies tend to include shipping and storage in their cost of goods sold, while others list it as a separate expense. This
is why you must read all the notes to the financial statements and gain a better understanding of what is and isn't included
in the various figures. (To learn more, read Footnotes: Start Reading The Fine Print.)

Aside from earnings and revenue growth, one important thing to look at is the markup percentage for the retailer. This is
also known as the gross profit margin (sales minus cost of goods sold). Unfortunately, there is not one margin that every
retailer should use: discount stores generally have lower margins compared to other general merchandisers. When
comparing these numbers, higher margins are usually better because it means the company has more room to work with
during price wars, intensified competition or when demand slows.

Inventory is also a key figure to pay close attention to as without it, retailers don't have anything to sell. A company's
inventory situation depends on what type of products it offers. For example, the inventory turnover for a grocery store
(with perishable goods) will be higher than that of a department store. Compare the turnover rates of direct competitors:
those with higher rates tend to have fresh new products that sell more frequently. Keep in mind that an increase in
inventory is not always a cause for alarm. Sometimes inventory will increase as a result of new stores opening or the
expansion of existing stores. Therefore, compare the increase in inventory to the growth of new stores to see if there is
more to the story. (For more on inventory evaluation, read Measuring Company Efficiency.)

As one final caveat (beware) when looking at performance data and financial statements for retailers is to compare them
against the same period for the previous year. Holiday spending and other seasonal factors can mean wild swings in
financial results from one quarter to the next. Compare the Christmas season results for the company over the same
season from previous years. There isn't one store out there that doesn't see an increase in sales during the month of
December, so don't be fooled by comparisons to preceding months. This is why year-over-year same store sales figures
are so widely followed by investors and analysts. When retailers release their same store sales figures on the first or
second Thursday of every month, they are usually compared to the same time period from previous years. To take this
one step further, compare sales data for more than just one month. Aggressive marketing or discounts can skew data for
one particular month; therefore, you need to look at the overall trend in same store sales over several months.

Porter's 5 Forces Analysis

1. Threat of New Entrants. One trend that started over a decade ago has been a decreasing number of
independent retailers. Walk through any mall and you'll notice that a majority of them are chain stores. While the
barriers to start up a store are not impossible to overcome, the ability to establish favorable supply contracts,
leases and be competitive is becoming virtually impossible. Their vertical structure and centralized buying gives
chain stores a competitive advantage over independent retailers.
2. Power of Suppliers. Historically, retailers have tried to exploit relationships with suppliers. A great example was
in the 1970s, when Sears sought to dominate the household appliance market. Sears set very high standards for
quality; suppliers that didn't meet these standards were dropped from the Sears line. You could also liken this to
the strict control that Wal-Mart places on its suppliers. A contract with a large retailer such as Wal-Mart can make
or break a small supplier. In the retail industry, suppliers tend to have very little power.
3. Power of Buyers. Individually, customers have very little bargaining power with retail stores. It is very difficult to
bargain with the clerk at Safeway for a better price on grapes. But as a whole, if customers demand high-quality
products at bargain prices, it helps keep retailers honest.
4. Availability of Substitutes. The tendency in retail is not to specialize in one good or service, but to deal in a wide
range of products and services. This means that what one store offers you will likely find at another store.
Retailers offering products that are unique have a distinct or absolute advantage over their competitors.
5. Competitive Rivalry. Retailers always face stiff competition. The slow market growth for the retail market means
that firms must fight each other for market share. More recently, they have tried to reduce the cutthroat pricing
competition by offering frequent flier points, memberships and other special services to try and gain the
customer's loyalty.
Key Links

 Department of Commerce - Get the latest news and statistics for the U.S. economy.
 ChainStoreAge.com - News, polls and opinion articles for the retail industry
 Supermarket News - News and statistics on the food retailing industry
Analyzing Retail Stocks
By Glenn Curtis
In spite of the fact that their products are relatively easy to understand and relate to, retail companies can be difficult for
the average investor to analyze. But the good news is that if an investor knows what metrics to look for, the stock
selection process will be much easier.
To that end, below is a list of nine tips that all investors should use when determining whether a retail stock is worth the
investment:
1. Visit the Stores
An investor can learn a lot simply by perusing the aisles of a particular retail location. Information that can be found readily
include the store's layout, the availability and appearance of the merchandise, and the prices being charged.
As a rule, investors should look favorably upon stores that are well-lit, sell timely and fashionable merchandise, have neat
displays and offer very few discount items.
The savvy investor will also take note of the foot traffic in store. Is it crowded? Are there lines at the registers? Are
shoppers buying big-ticket items in bulk, or merely lurking around the discount racks hunting for bargains? In fact, these
are all questions that the investor should ponder that will help him or her determine the overall health of the company.
2. Analyze Promotional Activities
Is the company promoting its merchandise to drive foot traffic or earnings? Does it try to get every last dollar it can out of
the consumer out of desperation or weakness (because it can't sell it wares)? This is an important point to clarify because
companies that are willing to sell their merchandise at deep discounts just to unload it before the end of a selling season
often do so at the expense of margins and earnings.
Visiting the store, and examining the weekly circulars, can give the investor an idea of whether the company is begging
shoppers, literally or figuratively, to come into the store, which can be a sign that the company is headed toward an
earnings shortfall.
3. Examine Gross Margin Trends
Investors should look for both sequential and year-over-year growth in gross margins. However, investors should also
keep seasonality effects in mind. Most retailers see a surge in revenues in the fourth quarter compared to the third quarter,
because of the holiday season. In any case, gross margin trends will give the investor a better idea of how goodcurrent
and/or future period earnings will be.
Investors should be extremely wary of companies that are experiencing a decline in gross margins (either sequentially or
year-over-year). This is because those companies are probably experiencing a decline in revenue or foot traffic, an
increase in product costs and/or heavy markdowns of their merchandise, all of which can be detrimental to earnings
growth.
4. Hone in on Sales-Per-Square-Foot Data
This metric (that some companies reveal in conference calls, and others reveal in their 10-K or 10-Q) is a reliable indicator
of how good management is at using store space and allocating resources, the higher the sales-per-square-foot the better.
For example, Coach's sales-per-square-foot was more than $1,800 in 2012. This is quite good, given that some of its
competitors, like Michael Kors, for example, reported sales-per-square-foot of around $1,400. In other words, using this
metric, an investor could assume that Coach's management is making better use of its floor space than its counterparts at
Kmart. It may also suggest that Walmart has a better merchandise mix, and may have more flexibility with respect to its
margins, though other factors would have to be examined to determine whether this is the case.
5. Examine Inventory/Receivable Trends
Investors should examine sequential and year-over-year trends in both inventories and accounts receivable. If all is well,
these two accounts should be growing at about the same pace as revenues. However, if inventories are growing at a
faster rate than revenues, it may indicate that the company is unable to sell certain merchandise. Unfortunately, when this
happens, companies are usually left with just two options - they can either sell the merchandise at a really low price point
and sacrifice margins, or they can write off the merchandise altogether. (Which also could have a significant adverse
impact on earnings.)
If receivables are growing at a faster rate than revenues, it may indicate that the company is not getting paid on a timely
basis. This may lead to a deceleration in sales in some future period. In short, changes in the inventory and receivable
accounts should garner a great deal of attention, because they can often signal future fluctuations in revenue and
earnings.
6. Examine Same-Store-Sales Data Closely
This is the most important metric in retail sales analysis. Same-store-sales data reveals how a store, or a number of
stores, fares on a period-to-period basis. Ideally, an investor would like to see both sequential and year-over-year same-
store-sales growth. Such an increase would indicate that the company's concept is working and its merchandise is fresh.
Conversely, if same-store-sales numbers are decelerating, it may signify that a host of problems exist, such as increased
competition, a poor merchandise mix or a number of other factors that could be limiting foot traffic.
7. Calculate and Compare P/E Ratios Vs. Expected Earnings Growth Rates
When analysts review retail companies to determine whether they are "cheap," they typically calculate the current price-
to-earnings ratio (P/E) of a particular company, and then compare it to the expected rate of earnings growth for that same
company. Companies that trade at an earnings multiple that is less than the expected growth rate are considered to be
"cheap," and may be worth a further look.
Let's look at an old example: in December 2006, Target traded at 18.31 times its fiscal 2007 earnings estimates. This was
at a premium to its expected 13% earnings growth rate in the coming year (from $3.18 to $3.59 per share). Using this
method of evaluation, analysts would probably not think that Target's stock is very cheap. However, at the same time,
Sears Holdings traded at about 20.4 times its fiscal 2007 earnings estimates. That is at a slight discount to its anticipated
23% earnings growth over the next year (from $8.45 to $10.37 per share). Using this data point alone, Sears would have
been considered the "cheaper" stock.
With that in mind, investors should be cautioned that this is just one metric. It should go without saying that same-store-
sales numbers, inventory trends and margins (in addition to a number of other factors) should also be considered when
selecting a retail stock for investment.

8. Tabulate Tangible Book Value

A company's tangible book value per share will reveal what its assets are really worth, and what the investor is really
getting for his or her money.
To determine this number, investors should take the total "stockholder equity" number from the company's balance sheet
and then subtract any intangibles such as goodwill, licenses, brand recognition, or other assets that can't be readily
defined or valued. The resulting number should then be divided by the total number of outstanding shares. Companies
that are trading at or near tangible book value per share are considered to be a good value.
For example:

Let's say that a company has $20 million in shareholder's equity, and goodwill and brand recognition worth $2 million each.
With two million shares outstanding, the tangible book value per share would be as follows:

With all of that in mind, sometimes companies that trade at a very low multiple of tangible book value are trading that low
for a reason. There might be something wrong! In any case, its worth investigating, because it will give investors a sense
of what the business is truly worth (on an asset basis).
9. Examine the Geographic Footprint
If an investor is comparing two companies that are otherwise identical, the investor should select the one (for investment)
with the most diversified revenue base and store locations. Why?
Consider the case of Duane Reade, which in 2010 became a subsidiary of the Walgreen Company. In 2001, Duane
Reade had a huge presence in New York City. Its business, along with the local economy, was booming. Then the
September 11 terrorist attacks occurred. As a result of its narrow geographic footprint, its company-wide sales took a big
hit, as a number of its locations were either closed or made inaccessible by construction.
However, back then, its former rival Walgreens maintained thousands of stores in a number of states nationwide (and that
also maintained stores in the New York area at the time), and was much more insulated against these regional difficulties
and did not suffer the same degree of sales decline.
Put yet another way, try not to invest in companies with too much at stake in one geographic region.
The Bottom Line
To analyze retail stocks, investors need to be aware of the most common metrics used, as well as the company-specific
and macroeconomic factors that can have an impact on the underlying stock prices.
Retail stocks rotate in and out of favor with investors rather easily depending on several factors, some of which are
externally controlled whereas others are internal. Once darlings of the retail industry can just as easily become the most
hated if the retailer miscalculates the types or style of goods consumers seek, an internal issue that can be turned around
with the right management in place. The other factors are more external such as the state of the economy, which
influences how willing consumers are to spend and what goods they desire. For instance during recessionary times,
consumers tend to hold onto their cash and discretionary budgets decrease, hurting luxury retailers to the benefit of low
budget retailers. The strength of the US dollar also impacts retailers both from a sourcing of goods standpoint (if retailers
buy goods with US dollars from other countries, a weak US dollar will buy fewer goods) and from the translation effect on
earnings from foreign operations. These and other factors impact the finances of the retailers so when deciding to invest
in these stocks, investors need to analyze key financial ratios that drive the stock prices. This article provides a guide of
the most useful financial measures and ratios to track for the retail industry.
Retail Key Financial Measures and Ratios
The management of retail companies, like most other industries, provide guidance for earnings per share (EPS) and may
even give a breakdown of operating profit or earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) and
revenues. Revenue guidance is generally provided in the form of same store sales or comps. These terms are used to
describe sales as compared to prior year sales of stores open for that full time period. It is a comparability measure. For
example, if Dollar General (DG
), a low budget retailer provided comp guidance of 3% for December, it means the company expects sales in December to
be 3% greater than sales in December a year ago for all the stores open for that full time period. This is important
because it helps investors differentiate between sales growth from opening new stores and sales growth from existing
stores.
Analysts also like to track foot traffic and ticket for retailers. Foot traffic or “traffic” refers to how many potential shoppers
the retailer gets in its doors. Higher foot traffic generally leads to higher sales. Stores use gimmicks like sales or “grand
openings”, but also promotions. For example, Kohl’s (KSS) has “Kohl’s Cash” which is a type of “coupon” that can be
used during a specified time frame in which customers can apply the “Kohl’s Cash” against purchases. This “cash” is
given to customers at checkout to be used at a later date, incentivizing them to come back to the store (increasing foot
traffic) and buy more merchandise, generally leading to sales that exceed the “cash” amount. In other words it gets
customers back to the store to spend more money!
Ticket is also measured. The higher the ticket, the more customers spend. Retailers want to increase the ticket. For
example customer A buys a pack of gum, a low ticket item. Customer B buys a flat screen TV, a high ticket item. Retailers
want to continually upgrade the ticket so customer C buys both the flat screen TV and the gum! Retailer’s primary way to
increase tickets is through promotions.
Ticket, foot traffic and same store sales growth are all desirable, but not at the expense of operating earnings and margins.
EBIT forecasts provide context to revenue growth. If retailers are so heavily promoting goods to increase traffic and ticket
growth at the expense of profits, then the end result will not be positive. Comparing EBIT as a percent of sales, operating
margin, provides useful information about the profitability of the growth initiatives. Operating margins should be compared
on a year over year basis and against competitors. Actually all the financial metrics should be compared on a same store
basis and within the same time period because seasonality has a big impact on retailers. The December holiday season
tends to drive the highest foot traffic, ticket and comps. As a result, the calendar year (CY) fourth quarter produces the
highest revenues while the CY first quarter tends to be produce the lowest. So comparing 4 th quarter to 1st quarter would
be meaningless but comparing 4th quarter this year to 4th quarter last year would provide the most useful analysis on the
operations of the company.
Bottom Line
The retail industry is measured based on how well the companies are able to grow sales in existing stores. Foot traffic and
ticket data are used to forecast revenue growth because those with the strongest ability to profitably grow same store
sales will receive the highest valuation multiple and attract investors.

The Banking Industry

If there is one industry that has the stigma of being old and boring, it would have to be banking; however, a global trend
of deregulation has opened up many new businesses to the banks. Coupling that with technological developments like
internet banking and ATMs, the banking industry is obviously trying its hardest to shed its lackluster image.

There is no question that bank stocks are among the hardest to analyze. Many banks hold billions of dollars in assets and
have several subsidiaries in different industries. A perfect example of what makes analyzing a bank stock so difficult is the
length of their financials - they are typically well over 100 pages. While it would take an entire textbook to explain all the
ins and outs of the banking industry, here we'll shed some light on the more important areas to look at when analyzing a
bank as an investment. (For background reading, see Analyzing A Bank's Financial Statements.)

There are two major types of banks in North America:

 Regional (and Thrift) Banks - These are the smaller financial institutions, which primarily focus on one
geographical area within a country. In the U.S., there are six regions: Southeast, Northeast, Central, etc.
Providing depository and lending services is the primary line of business for regional banks.
 Major (Mega) Banks - While these banks might maintain local branches, their main scope is in financial centers
like New York, where they get involved with international transactions and underwriting.
Could you imagine a world without banks? At first, this might sound like a great thought! But banks (and financial
institutions) have become cornerstones of our economy for several reasons. They transfer risk, provide liquidity, facilitate
both major and minor transactions and provide financial information for both individuals and businesses.

Running a bank is just as difficult as analyzing it for investment purposes. A bank's management must look at the
following criteria before it decides how many loans to extend, to whom the loans can be given, what rates to set, and so
on:

 Capital Adequacy and the Role of Capital

 Asset and Liability Management - There is a happy medium between banks overextending themselves (lending
too much) and lending enough to make a profit.
 Interest Rate Risk - This indicates how changes in interest rates affect profitability.
 Liquidity - This is formulated as the proportion of outstanding loans to total assets. If more than 60-70% of total
assets are loaned out, the bank is considered to be highly illiquid.
  Asset Quality - What is the likelihood of default?
 Profitability - This is earnings and revenue growth.

Perhaps the biggest distinction that sets the banking industry apart from others is the government's heavy involvement in
it. Besides setting restrictions on borrowing limits and the amount of deposits that a bank must hold in the vault, the
government (mainly the Federal Reserve) has a huge influence on a bank's profitability. (To learn more about the Fed,
read the Federal Reserve Tutorial.)

Key Ratios/Terms
Interest Rates: In the U.S., the Federal Reserve decides the interest rates. Because interest rates directly affect the
credit market (loans), banks constantly try to predict the next interest rate moves, so they can adjust their own rates. A
bad prediction on the movement of interest rates can cost millions. (To learn more, read Trying To Predict Interest Rates.)

Gap: This refers to the difference, over time, between the assets and liabilities of a financial institution. A "negative gap"
occurs when liabilities are higher than assets. Conversely, when there are more assets than liabilities, there is a positive
gap. When interest rates are going up, banks with a positive gap will profit. The opposite is true when interest rates are
falling.

Capital Adequacy: A bank's capital, or equity, is the margin by which creditors are covered if the bank has
to liquidate assets. A good measure of a bank's health is its capital/asset ratio, which, by law, is required to be above a
prescribed minimum.

The following are the current minimum capital adequacy ratios:

 Tier 1 capital to total risk weighted credit (see below) must not be less than 4%.
 Total capital (Tier 1 plus Tier 2 less certain deductions) to total risk weighted credit exposures must not be less
than 8%. (For more on this, read How Do Banks Determine Risk?)

The risk weighting is prescribed by the Bank for International Settlements. For example, cash and government securities
are said to have zero risk, whereas mortgages have a risk weight of 0.5. Multiplying the assets by their risk weights gives
the total risk-weighted assets, which is then used to determine the capital adequacy.

Tier 1 Capital: In relation to the capital adequacy ratio, Tier 1 capital can absorb losses without a bank being required to
cease trading. This is core capital, and includes equity capital and disclosed reserves.

Tier 2 Capital: In relation to the capital adequacy ratio, Tier 2 capital can absorb losses in the event of a winding up, so it
provides less protection to depositors. It includes items such as undisclosed reserves, general loss reserves and
subordinated term debt.

Gross Yield on Earning Assets (GYEA) = Total Interest Income

Total Earning Assets

This tells you what yields were generated from invested capital (assets).

Rates Paid on Funds (RPF) = Total Interest Expense

Total Earning Assets

This tells you the average interest rate that the bank is paying on borrowed funds.

Net Interest Margin (NIM) = (Total Interest Income - Total Interest Expense)
Total Earning Assets
This tells you the average interest margin that the bank is receiving by borrowing and lending funds

Analyst Insight
Interest rate fluctuations play a huge role in the profitability of a bank. Banks are, therefore, trying to get away from this
dependency by generating more revenue on fee-based services. Many bank financial statements will break up the
revenue figures into fee-based (or non interest) and non-fee (interest) generated revenue. Make sure you take a close
look at the fee-based revenue: firms with a higher fee-based revenue will typically earn a higher return on assets than
competitors.

Evaluating management can be difficult because so many aspects of the job are intangible. One key figure for evaluating
management is the net interest margin (NIM) (defined above). Look at the past NIM across several years to determine its
trends. Ideally, you want to see an even or upward trend. Most banks will have NIMs in the 2-5% range; this might appear
low, but don't be fooled - a .01% change from the previous year means big changes in profits.

Another good metric for evaluating management performance is a bank's return on assets (ROA). When calculating ROA,
remember that banks are highly leveraged, so a 1% ROA indicates huge profits. This is one area that catches a lot of
investors: technology companies might have an ROA of 5% or more, but these figures cannot be directly compared to
banks. (To learn more, read ROA On The Way.)

As with other industries, you want to know that a bank has costs under control, and that things are being run efficiently.
Closely analyze the bank's operating expenses. Ideally, you want to see operating expenses remain the same as previous
years or to decrease. This isn't to say that an increase in operating expenses is a bad thing, as long as revenues are also
increasing.

As we mentioned in the above section, a measure of a bank's financial health is its capital adequacy. If a bank is having
difficulty meeting the capital ratio requirements, it can use a number of ways to increase the ratio. If it is publicly traded, it
can issue new stock or sell more subordinated debt. That, however, may be costly if the bank is in a weak financial
position. Small banks, most of which are not publicly traded, generally do not have the option of selling new stock. If the
bank cannot increase its equity, it can reduce its assets to improve the capital ratio. Shrinking the balance sheet, however,
is not attractive because it hurts profitability. The last option is to seek a merger with a stronger bank.

Porter's 5 Forces Analysis

1. Threat of New Entrants. The average person can't come along and start up a bank, but there are services, such
as internet bill payment, on which entrepreneurs can capitalize. Banks are fearful of being squeezed out of the
payments business, because it is a good source of fee-based revenue. Another trend that poses a threat is
companies offering other financial services. What would it take for an insurance company to start offering
mortgage and loan services? Not much. Also, when analyzing a regional bank, remember that the possibility of a
mega bank entering into the market poses a real threat.
2. Power of Suppliers. The suppliers of capital might not pose a big threat, but the threat of suppliers luring away
human capital does. If a talented individual is working in a smaller regional bank, there is the chance that person
will be enticed away by bigger banks, investment firms, etc.
3. Power of Buyers. The individual doesn't pose much of a threat to the banking industry, but one major factor
affecting the power of buyers is relatively high switching costs. If a person has a mortgage, car loan, credit card,
checking account and mutual funds with one particular bank, it can be extremely tough for that person to switch to
another bank. In an attempt to lure in customers, banks try to lower the price of switching, but many people would
still rather stick with their current bank. On the other hand, large corporate clients have banks wrapped around
their little fingers. Financial institutions - by offering better exchange rates, more services, and exposure to foreign
capital markets - work extremely hard to get high-margin corporate clients.
4. Availability of Substitutes. As you can probably imagine, there are plenty of substitutes in the banking industry.
Banks offer a suite of services over and above taking deposits and lending money, but whether it is insurance,
mutual funds or fixed income securities, chances are there is a non-banking financial services company that can
offer similar services. On the lending side of the business, banks are seeing competition rise from unconventional
companies. Sony (NYSE: SNE), General Motors (NYSE:GM) and Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT) all offer preferred
financing to customers who buy big ticket items. If car companies are offering 0% financing, why would anyone
want to get a car loan from the bank and pay 5-10% interest?
5. Competitive Rivalry. The banking industry is highly competitive. The financial services industry has been around
for hundreds of years, and just about everyone who needs banking services already has them. Because of this,
banks must attempt to lure clients away from competitor banks. They do this by offering lower financing, preferred
rates and investment services. The banking sector is in a race to see who can offer both the best and fastest
services, but this also causes banks to experience a lower ROA. They then have an incentive to take on high-risk
projects. In the long run, we're likely to see more consolidation in the banking industry. Larger banks would prefer
to take over or merge with another bank rather than spend the money to market and advertise to people.

Key Links
 American Bankers Association - Get the latest industry facts and regulatory developments
 American Banker - Get resources and news on all aspects of the banking industry
 Federal Reserve - The official site of the U.S. Federal Reserve. Here you can learn about the monetary system,
read papers and get the latest statistical data.
Biotechnology

Biotechnology uses of biological processes in the development or manufacture of a product or in the technological
solution to a problem. Since the discovery of DNA in 1953, and the identification of DNA as the genetic material in all life,
there have been tremendous advances in the vast area of biotechnology. Biotech has a wide range of uses including food
alterations, genetic research and cloning, human and animal health care, pharmaceuticals and the environment.

The biotech arena has not been without controversy. In the 1970s, researchers were forced to stop doing certain types of
DNA experiments, and other countries banned the use of genetically modified agricultural products. More recently, we've
seen the controversy over cloning as well as stem-cell research. Perhaps the biggest development in the biotechnology
field (as far as investors go) occurred when, in the 1980s, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to allow for patenting of
genetically modified life forms. This means that intellectual property will always be at the forefront of biotechnology - some
argue that the scope of patent protection actually defines the industry.

Because of extremely high research and development costs coupled with very little revenue in the years of development,
many biotechnology companies must partner with larger firms to complete product development. Over the past decade,
the biotech industry, along with the hundreds of smaller companies operating in it, has been dominated by a small handful
of big companies; however, any one of these smaller companies have the potential to produce a product that sends them
soaring to the top.

Common Applications of Biotechnology

Agriculture Industry
Improved foods, pest control, plant and animal disease Oil/mineral recovery, environmental protection, waste
control, improved food production. reduction. Improved detergents, chemicals, stronger textiles.
Research
Health Care Understanding the human genome and better detection of
Drugs, vaccines, gene therapy, tissue replacements. diseases.

There are still a lot of unknowns in biotechnology, but high-profile analysts, politicians and CEOs have all been quoted as
stating that biotechnology is the future of health sciences.

Key Ratios/Terms

Research and Development (R&D) as a percentage of Sales = R&D Expenditures

Revenue
Generally speaking, the higher the percentage spent on R&D, the more is being spent developing new products. Thus,
the lower this is, the better. This ratio is useful when comparing one company to another or to the industry in general. (To
learn more, read The Ins And Outs Of In-Process R&D Expenses.)

Medicare/Medicaid: This national health insurance program is responsible for reimbursing individuals for certain health
related costs. Any sudden changes in funding and reimbursement rates can have profound effects on the biotech industry.
(For more insight, read What Does Medicare Cover?)

Orphan Drugs: These are drugs designed to treat people with rare diseases and infections (occurring in less than
200,000 individuals). Once the drugs are marketed to the public, orphan drug makers might not benefit from huge demand,
but governments will usually subsidize many of the costs of producing these drugs.

(For more reading, see Chasing Down Biotech Zombie Stocks and Using DCF In Biotech Valutaion.)

Because drug development is an important aspect of biotechnology, understanding the process of approval of drugs for
sale to the problem is also an important part of investing in the biotech industry.

Food & Drug Administration (FDA) Approval Process

This is testing on 20-80 healthy individuals. The purpose of this phase is to determine
Phase I (approx. 1 year) the dosage and safety of the drug.
As testing on 100-300 patients suffering from disease or condition, this phase mainly
Phase II (approx. 1-3 years) determines effectiveness and potential side effects.
As testing on 1000-5000 patients suffering from disease or condition, this phase
monitors side effects brought on by long-term usage. This stage is by far the most
stringent and rigorous. Some of the patients receive the drug and the others receive a
Phase III (approx. 2-3 years) placebo (like a sugar pill) to determine effectiveness.
Note: It has been estimated that only 1-2 out of 20 drugs that enter the FDA testing process actually gain final approval.
Analyst Insight
Analyzing even a blue-chip company is no easy task. The job is even more difficult when the company in question has
very little revenue and its livelihood hinges on one or two potential products.

As with analyzing any company, estimating earnings is key. Because of the long R&D phase, during which there is little
revenue coming in, determining the prospective earnings of a biotech company is tricky. You can start by looking at the
company's products in both development and production. For a company that is already selling products, looking at the
sales trends makes it easy to determine the growth rates and market potential for the drug. For products in the pipeline
you need to look at the disease that the drug/product intends to target and how large that market is. A drug that cures the
common cold, cancer or heart disease is more lucrative than an orphan drug targeting an obscure disease affecting fewer
than 100,000 people in North America; furthermore, most analysts prefer companies that are developing treatments as
opposed to vaccines. Treatment drugs are used continuously and repeatedly, whereas vaccines are a one-time shot and
are not nearly as lucrative from a financial perspective. (Read Measuring The Medicine Makers to learn more.)

Ideally, you want a company to have several products in development. That way, if one does not make it through the
approval process, there are other products to balance the blow. At the same time, there is a happy medium between a
company being too focused, and a company having so many developing ideas and products that it loses focus and
spreads itself too thin.

Next, you want to take a look at is how far the company's products are in the stages of clinical development, and how
close the product is to FDA approval. All companies wishing to sell drugs and/or biotech products in the U.S. require FDA
approval. If a company is relatively new at the FDA process, you can expect it to take longer for it to gain approval. It is for
this reason that many small biotech companies will partner with larger, more experienced ones. The difference of one
year in gaining approval can mean millions of dollars.

As the key to any successful biotech company is solid financing, you also must consider where the company is getting its
money from. Take a look under current assets on the balance sheet; the company should have plenty of cash. By looking
at the current ratio/working capital ratio you should be able to determine whether it is cash stricken. Because ratios vary
wildly across different industries, compare the ratios only to those of similar companies within the biotech industry. The
reason for the variation is that most biotech companies use equity financing instead of borrowing, partly because equity is
cheaper and partly because many banks and creditors usually refuse to finance such high-risk ventures for which there is
a gross lack of collateral.

The other question you need to answer is where the company's money is being spent. Research and development should
be the answer. Most biotech firms spend a majority of their money on R&D for new products. Some believe that the more
a company spends on R&D, the better the company. Even more important, however, is finding a company that does a lot
of research while still controlling expenses to make the cash last for the years ahead. For companies with sales, the
process is a little easier: you can look at R&D expenditures in relation to revenue, employees, or some other measure,
and then compare it to similar biotech firms. This gives insight into how frugal the company is with its money.

When considering investing in biotech, doing a simple stock screen based on earnings, revenue or some other financial
figure might not uncover the diamond in the rough. You need to research the potential market for a drug, determine
whether there are competitive products and, most importantly, predict whether the product will gain final approval. This
doesn't mean you need to be a doctor to analyze a biotech stock, but you do need to understand the area of
biotechnology in which the company is situated, and whether the risk of investing in the company is worth the reward.

Porter's 5 Forces Analysis

1. Threat of New Entrants. Because the biotech industry is filled with lots of small companies trying to hit the
jackpot, the barriers to enter this industry are enough to scare away all but the serious companies. Biotech firms
require huge amounts of funding to finance their large R&D budgets. Having ample cash is one of the biggest
barriers, so when interest rates are low, or the equity markets are receptive to initial public offerings,
the barriers are lower. Specialization also creates barriers. For instance, knowledge about cancer and heart
disease is quite high, whereas a company focusing on something more obscure would likely have a low threat of
new entrants because there are very few experts in this field.
2. Power of Suppliers. Biotech companies are unique because most of their value is driven by intellectual property.
The nature of their business does not force them, unlike other industries, to rely on suppliers. Scientific tools,
materials, computers and testing equipment is highly specialized, but the likelihood of these companies invading
on their line of business is not very high. One snag is that marketing alliances have often proved to be
problematic. Small biotech firms don't have the distribution capabilities to promote their new drugs, so they are
forced to license their drugs to other suppliers.
3. Power of Buyers. The bargaining power of customers has different levels in the biotech arena. For example, a
company that sells pharmaceutical drugs has thousands of individual customers and doesn't need to worry too
much about a buyer revolt. After all, when is the last time you were able to bargain with the pharmacist for a better
 deal? On the other side are the biotech firms, which sell highly specialized products to governments and hospitals.
These large organizations have a lot more bargaining power with biotech companies.
4. Availability of Substitutes. The threat of substitutes in the biotechnology field, again, really depends on the area.
While patent protection might stop the threat of alternative drugs and chemicals for a period of time, eventually
there will be a company that can produce a similar product at a cheaper price. Generic drugs, for instance, are a
problem: a company that spends millions of dollars on the creation of a new drug must sell it at a high price to
recoup the R&D costs, but then along comes a generic drug maker, which simply copies the formula and sells it
for a fraction of the cost. This is a big problem in foreign countries where there is a lack of government control.
Organizations will illegally produce patent protected drugs and sell them at much lower prices.
5. Competitive Rivalry. There are more than 1,000 biotech companies operating in North America. With the top 1%
of these companies making up a majority of the revenue, it's a tough industry in which to make a mark. The fight
to see who can cure a disease or condition has researchers working day and night. Trade secrets are also
extremely valuable. In short, the rivalry is extremely intense.

Key Links

 Food and Drug Administration (FDA) - The official website of the FDA.
 Bio Space - Get the latest regulation news and developments on the industry and specific stocks.
 BioTech and Pharma Stocks - This site has useful news and links on the biotech sector.
The Semiconductor Industry

The semiconductor industry lives - and dies - by a simple creed: smaller, faster and cheaper. The benefit of being tiny is
pretty simple: finer lines mean more transistors can be packed onto the same chip. The more transistors on a chip, the
faster it can do its work. Thanks in large part to fierce competition and to new technologies that lower the cost of
production per chip, within a matter of months, the price of a new chip can fall 50%.

As a result, there is constant pressure on chip makers to come up with something better and even cheaper than what
redefined state-of-the-art only a few months before. Chips makers must constantly go back to the drawing board to come
up with superior goods. Even in a down market, weak sales are seen as no excuse for not coming up with better products
to whet the appetites of customers who will eventually need to upgrade their computing and electronic devices.

Traditionally, semiconductor companies controlled the entire production process, from design to manufacture. Yet many
chip makers are now delegating more and more production to others in the industry. Foundry companies, whose sole
business is manufacturing, have recently come to the fore, providing attractive outsourcing options. In addition to
foundries, the ranks of increasingly specialized designers and chip testers are starting to swell. Chip companies are
emerging leaner and more efficient. Chip production now resembles a gourmet restaurant kitchen, where chefs line up to
add just the right spice to the mix.

Broadly speaking, the semiconductor industry is made up of four main product categories:
1. Memory: Memory chips serve as temporary storehouses of data and pass information to and from computer
devices' brains. The consolidation of the memory market continues, driving memory prices so low that only a few
giants like Toshiba, Samsung and NEC can afford to stay in the game.
2. Microprocessors: These are central processing units that contain the basic logic to perform tasks. Intel's
domination of the microprocessor segment has forced nearly every other competitor, with the exception of
Advanced Micro Devices, out of the mainstream market and into smaller niches or different segments altogether.
3. Commodity Integrated Circuit: Sometimes called "standard chips", these are produced in huge batches for
routine processing purposes. Dominated by very large Asian chip manufacturers, this segment offers razor-thin
profit margins that only the biggest semiconductor companies can compete for.
4. Complex SOC: "System on a Chip" is essentially all about the creation of an integrated circuit chip with an entire
system's capability on it. The market revolves around growing demand for consumer products that combine new
features and lower prices. With the doors to the memory, microprocessor and commodity integrated circuit
markets tightly shut, the SOC segment is arguably the only one left with enough opportunity to attract a wide
range of companies.
Key Ratios/Terms

Moore's Law: The productivity miracle that has kept the number of transistors on a chip doubling every two years or so.
Gordon Moore, a co-founder of Intel, predicted that this trend would continue for the foreseeable future. The challenge
now faced by semiconductor research and development (R&D) teams is to push the performance envelope and keep
pace with the law.

"Fabless" Chip Makers: Semiconductor companies that carry out design and marketing, but choose to outsource some
or all of the manufacturing. These companies have high growth potential because they are not burdened by the overhead
associated with manufacture, or "fabrication".

R&D/Sales: Research and Development Expenses

Revenue
The greater the percentage spent on R&D, the more opportunities are available for developing new chip products. In
general, the higher the R&D/Sales ratio, the better the prospects for the chip maker.

Yield: The number of operational devices out of all manufactured. In the 1980s, chip makers lived with yields of 10-30%.
To be competitive today, however, chip makers have to sustain yields of 80-90%. This requires very expensive
manufacturing processes.

Book-to-Bill Ratio: Describes the technology industry's demand/supply ratio for orders on a "firm's book" to number of
orders filled.
This ratio measures whether the company has more semiconductor orders than it can deliver (if the ratio is greater than 1),
equal amounts (equal to 1), or less (less than 1). This monthly figure is widely published by financial newspapers and
websites.

Analyst Insight
If semiconductor investors can remember one thing, it should be that the semiconductor industry is highly cyclical.
Semiconductor companies face constant booms and busts in demand for products. Demand typically tracks end-market
demand for personal computers, cell phones and other electronic equipment. When times are good, companies like Intel
and Toshiba can't produce microchips quickly enough to meet demand. When times are tough, they can be downright
brutal. Slow PC sales, for instance, can send the industry – and its share prices - into a tailspin.

Surprisingly, the cyclicality of the industry can provide a degree of comfort for investors. In some other technology sectors,
like telecom equipment, one can never be entirely sure whether fortunes are cyclical or secular. By contrast, investors can
be almost certain that the market will turn at some point in the not-so-distant future. (For more insight, read Cyclical Vs.
Non-Cyclical Stocks and The Ups And Downs Of Investing In Cyclical Stocks.)

At the same time, it doesn't make sense to speak of the "chip cycle" as if it were an event of singular nature. While
semiconductors is still a commodity business at heart, its end markets are so numerous - PCs, communications
infrastructure, automotive, consumer products, etc., - that it is unlikely that excess capacity in one area will bring the
whole house down.

While cyclicality offers some comfort, it also creates risk for investors. Chip makers must routinely take part in high stakes
gambling. The big risk comes from the fact that it can take many months, or even years, after a major development project
for companies to find out whether they've hit the jackpot, or blown it all.

One cause of the delay is the intertwined but fragmented structure of the industry. Different sectors peak and bottom out
at different times. For instance, the low point for foundries frequently arrives much sooner than it does for chip designers.
Another reason is the industry's long lead time – it takes years to develop a chip or build a foundry, and even longer
before the products make money.

Semiconductor companies are faced with the classic conundrum of whether it's technology that drives the market or the
market that drives the technology. Investors should recognize that both have validity for the semiconductor industry. Here
is a summary of key drivers and risks that impact fundamentals and stock prices.

What Drives Semiconductor Fundamentals and Stock Prices?

Drivers Impact Measured By

Market share gains Drives revenue and earnings increases Units shipped vs. competition
Absorption of higher fixed costs contributes to
Higher margins/profits Manufacturing process efficiencies
lower unit costs
Higher product performance vs. the Stimulates greater enthusiasm for end Performance results based on
competition products and support industry benchmarks

What Can Go Wrong?

Risks Impact on Fundamentals
Weak economy and/or product
Shipment volumes may be negatively affected
environment
Loss of revenues, profits and competitive position; potential reduction in demand
Delayed delivery of products
for current chips
Sever price competition Shrinking profit margins
Increasing chip complexity requires more advanced processes to keep costs
Failure to keep up with technology
under control
A slowdown in pace of computer
Depresses industry organic growth rates.
replacement

Porter's 5 Forces Analysis

1. Threat of New Entrants. In the early days of the semiconductors industry, design engineers with good ideas
would often leave one company to start up another. As the industry matures, however, setting up a chip
fabrication factory requires billions of dollars in investment. The cost of entry makes it painful or even impossible
for all but the biggest players to keep up with state-of-the-art operations. It comes as no surprise, then, that
established players have had a big advantage. Regardless, there are signs that things could be changing yet
again. Semiconductor companies are forming alliances to spread out the costs of manufacturing. Meanwhile, the
appearance and success of "fabless" chip makers suggests that factory ownership may not last as a barrier to
entry.
2. Power of Suppliers. For the large semiconductor companies, suppliers have little power - many semiconductor
companies have hundreds of suppliers. This diffusion of risk over many companies allows the chip giant to keep
the bargaining power of any one supplier to a minimum. However, with production getting hugely expensive,
many smaller chip makers are becoming increasingly dependent on a handful of large foundries. As the suppliers
of cutting-edge equipment and production skills, merchant foundries enjoy considerable industry bargaining power.
The largest U.S.-based foundry belongs to none other than IBM – which is also a top chip maker in its own right.
3. Power of Buyers. Most of the industry's key segments are dominated by a small number of large players. This
means that buyers have little bargaining power.
4. Availability of Substitutes. The threat of substitutes in the semiconductors industry really depends on the
segment. While intellectual property protection might stop the threat of new substitute chips for a period of time,
within a short period of time companies start to produce similar products at lower prices. Copy-cat suppliers are a
problem: a company that spends millions, if not billions, of dollars on the creation of a faster, more reliable chip
will strive to recoup the R&D costs. But then along comes a player that reverse engineers the system and markets
a similar product for a fraction of the price.
5. Competitive Rivalry. The industry is marked by intense rivalries between individual companies. There is always
pressure on chip makers to come up with something better, faster and cheaper than what redefined the state-of-
the-art only a few months before. That pressure extends to chip makers, foundries, design labs and distributors –
everyone connected to the business of bringing chips from R&D into high-tech equipment. The result is an
industry that continually produces cutting-edge technology while riding volatile business conditions.

Key Links
 Semiconductor Magazine - News and analysis
The Insurance Industry
As a result of globalization, deregulation and terrorist attacks, the insurance industry has gone through a tremendous
transformation over the past decade.

In the simplest terms, insurance of any type is all about managing risk. For example, in life insurance, the insurance
company attempts to manage mortality (death) rates among its clients. The insurance company collects premiums from
policy holders, invests the money (usually in low risk investments), and then reimburses this money once the person
passes away or the policy matures. A person called an actuary constantly crunches demographic data to estimate the life
of a person. This is why characteristics such as age/sex/smoker/etc. all affect the premium that a policy holder must pay.
The greater the chance that a person will have a shorter life span than the average, the higher the premium that person
will have to pay. This process is virtually the same for every other type of insurance, including automobile, health and
property.

In the U.S., the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 legislated that banks, brokerages, insurance firms and other types of
financial institutions can join together to offer their customers a more complete range of services. In the insurance
business, this has led to a flurry of merger and acquisition activity. In fact, a majority of the liability insurance underwritten
in the U.S. has been through big firms, which have also been scooping up other insurance names.
Ownership of insurance companies can come in two forms: shareholder ownership or policyholder ownership. If the
company is owned by shareholders, it is like any other public company. That is, its shares trade on an exchange like
the NYSE, and it is required to report earnings on a quarterly basis. The other type of ownership is called "mutually owned
insurance companies." Here the company is actually owned by the policyholders, so an account called policyholder's
surplus, rather than shareholder's equity, appears on the balance sheet. It should be mentioned that in recent years many
of the top mutual insurance companies have gone through demutualization to become shareholder-owned. Today, only a
small handful of companies are still policyholder-owned.

Types of Insurance
There are several major types of insurance policies. Some companies offer the entire suite of insurance, while others
specialize in specific areas:

 Life Insurance - Insurance guaranteeing a specific sum of money to a designated beneficiary upon the death of
the insured, or to the insured if he or she lives beyond a certain age.
 Health Insurance - Insurance against expenses incurred through illness of the insured.
 Liability Insurance - The miscellaneous category. This insures property such as automobiles, property and
professional/business mishaps.

There are many factors to examine when looking at insurance companies. More than anything, both consumers and
investors should concern themselves with the insurer's financial strength and ability to meet ongoing obligations to
policyholders. Poor fundamentals not only indicate a poor investment opportunity, but also hinder growth. Nothing is
worse than insurance customers discovering that their insurance company might not have the financial stability to pay out
if it is faced with a large proportion of claims.

Over the years, there has been a big shift in the life insurance industry. Instead of offering straight insurance, the industry
now tends to sell customers on more investment type products like annuities. As a result, insurance companies have been
able to compete more directly with other financial services companies such as mutual funds and investment advisory firms.
To capitalize on this, many insurance companies even offer services such as tax and estate planning.

Key Ratios/Terms
Return on Equity (ROE): Net Income
Shareholder's Equity

ROE indicates the return a company is generating on the owners' investments. In the policyholder owned case, you would
use policy holders' surpluses as the denominator. As a general rule for insurance companies, ROE should lie between 10-
15%.

Return on Assets (ROA): Net Income + Interest Expense

Total Assets

ROA indicates the return a company is generating on the firm's investments/assets. In general, a life insurer should have
an ROA that falls in the 0.5-1% range.

Return on Total Revenue: Net Income

Total Revenue

This is another variation of the profitability ratios. The insurance industry average return is approximately 3%. If possible,
use the premium income and investment income as the numerator to find the profitability of each area.

Reinsurance: This is the process of multiple insurers sharing an insurance policy to reduce the risk for each insurer. You
can think of reinsurance as the insurance backing primary insurers against catastrophic losses. (To learn more,
read When Things Go Awry, Insurers Get Reinsured.)

The company transferring the risk is called the "ceding company"; the company receiving the risk is called the "assuming
company" or "reinsurer."

Lapse Ratio: Lapsed Life Insurance Specified Period

Contracts in Force (in effect) at Start of Specified Period

This ratio compares the number of policies that have lapsed (expired) within a specified period of time to those in force at
the start of that same period. It is a ratio used to measure the effectiveness of an insurer's marketing strategy. A lower
lapse ratio is better, particularly because insurance companies pay high commissions to brokers and agents that refer
new clients.

A.M. Best Ratings: A.M. Best dubs itself "The Insurance Information Source." This company provides data and research
on almost every major insurance company in North America and abroad. Many analysts equate the quality of A.M. Best
ratings to Moody's or Standard and Poor's bond ratings. A.M. Best ratings are so widely followed because they can
usually obtain company information that wouldn't be accessible to the average person.

The A.M. ratings range from A++ (superior quality) to F (the company is in liquidation). If you are analyzing an insurance
company, you may want to consider looking for the A.M. Best rating.

Analyst Insight
There are three major factors that we must consider when analyzing an insurance company. Coincidently, these are the
same ones that the A.M. Best ratings (among other things) take into account.

1. Leverage. The first things you want to check when considering an insurance company are the quality and
strength of the balance sheet. Everyday insurers are taking in premiums and paying out claims to policyholders.
The ability to meet their obligations toward these policy holders is extremely important. Companies should strike a
balance between high returns while keeping leverage intact. A company that is highly leveraged might not be able
to meet financial obligations when a large catastrophic event occurs. The following three things act to increase
leverage:

1) Writing more insurance policies

2) Dependence on reinsurance
3) Use of debt

Reinsurance allows a company to pass off some of the risk exposure to other insurers (usually a good thing), but
be careful. Too much dependence on reinsurance means that the company is not keeping a fair portion of
responsibility for each premium dollar.
2. Liquidity. The first test of an insurer's ability to meet financial obligations is the acid test. It tests whether a firm
has enough short-term assets (without selling inventory) to cover its immediate liabilities. Also take a close look
at cash flow. An insurer should almost always have a positive cash flow. Other things to keep an eye on are the
investment grades of the company's bond portfolio. Too many high and medium risk bonds could lead to
instability.
3. Profitability. As with any company, profitability is a key determinant for deciding whether to invest. For an
insurance company, there are two components of profits that we must consider: premium/underwriting income
and investment income.

Underwriting income is just that: any revenue derived from issuing insurance policies. By averaging the premium's
growth rates of several past years, you can determine the growth trends. Growing premium income is a "catch 22"
for insurance companies. Ideally, you want the growth rate to exceed the industry average, but you want to be
sure that this higher growth does not come at the expense of accepting higher-risk clients. Conversely, a
company whose premium income is growing at a slower rate might be too picky, looking for only the highest
quality insurance opportunities. The one thing to remember is that higher premium collections do not equate to
higher profits. Lower numbers of claims (via low risk clients) contribute more to the bottom line.

The second area of profitability that you need to include in your analysis is investment income. As we mentioned
earlier, a greater proportion of an insurer's income comes from investments. To evaluate this area, take a look at
the company's asset allocation strategy (usually mentioned in the notes of the financial statements). You aren't
likely to find any secrets in this area. A majority of the assets should be invested in low-risk bonds, equities
or money market securities. Some insurers invest a substantial portion of their assets in real estate. If this is so,
take a look at what type of property it is and where it is located. A building in New York City is much more liquid
than one in Boise, Idaho.

ROA, ROE, and the lapse ratios (discussed above) are also useful for evaluating the profitability of the insurer.
Calculate the ROA and ROE numbers over the past several years to determine whether management has been
increasing return for shareholders. The lapse ratio will help to tell whether the company has managed to keep
marketing expenses under control. The more policies that remain in force (are not canceled), the better.

Other Factors
Another major item that affects the performance of an insurance company is interest rate fluctuations. Insurance
companies invest much of the collected premiums, so the income generated through investing activities is highly
dependent on interest rates. Declining interest rates usually equate to slower investment income growth. Another
downside to interest rate fluctuations (not exclusive to insurance companies) is the cost of borrowing. Find out when the
company's debt matures and how high the interest rates are. If the company is about to borrow or reprice its debt, there
could be a big shock to cash flows as interest expense rises.

Demographics play one of the largest roles in affecting sales for insurance, particularly life insurance. As people age, they
tend to rely more and more on life insurance products for their retirement. Death benefit policies ensure that beneficiaries
are financially secure once the insured dies, but in more recent years, the insurance industry has made great headway in
offering investment/savings type insurance products. Because baby boomers are quickly approaching retirement age,
take a close look at the suite of insurance products that the company is offering and, from that, see if it stands to benefit
from this large portion of the population getting older.

The one problem with analyzing insurance companies is that the disclosure usually isn't enough. Proper analysis requires
substantial disclosure of things like reserve ratios, exposure to catastrophic/environmental loss and details of the
company's operations. This isn't to say that the financial statements are not enough for adequate analysis, but to dig really
deep, a person needs more information. We should also note that A.M. Best ratings take all of this information and more
into account when they determine their ratings.

Porter's 5 Forces Analysis

1. Threat of New Entrants. The average entrepreneur can't come along and start a large insurance company. The
threat of new entrants lies within the insurance industry itself. Some companies have carved out niche areas in
which they underwrite insurance. These insurance companies are fearful of being squeezed out by the big players.
Another threat for many insurance companies is other financial services companies entering the market. What
would it take for a bank or investment bank to start offering insurance products? In some countries, only
regulations that prevent banks and other financial firms from entering the industry. If those barriers were ever
broken down, like they were in the U.S. with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999, you can be sure that the
floodgates will open.
2. Power of Suppliers. The suppliers of capital might not pose a big threat, but the threat of suppliers luring away
human capital does. If a talented insurance underwriter is working for a smaller insurance company (or one in a
niche industry), there is the chance that person will be enticed away by larger companies looking to move into a
particular market.
3. Power of Buyers. The individual doesn't pose much of a threat to the insurance industry. Large corporate clients
have a lot more bargaining power with insurance companies. Large corporate clients like airlines and
pharmaceutical companies pay millions of dollars a year in premiums. Insurance companies try extremely hard to
get high-margin corporate clients.
4. Availability of Substitutes. This one is pretty straight forward, for there are plenty of substitutes in the insurance
industry. Most large insurance companies offer similar suites of services. Whether it is auto, home, commercial,
health or life insurance, chances are there are competitors that can offer similar services. In some areas of
insurance, however, the availability of substitutes are few and far between. Companies focusing on niche areas
usually have a competitive advantage, but this advantage depends entirely on the size of the niche and on
whether there are any barriers preventing other firms from entering.
5. Competitive Rivalry. The insurance industry is becoming highly competitive. The difference between one
insurance company and another is usually not that great. As a result, insurance has become more like a
commodity - an area in which the insurance company with the low cost structure, greater efficiency and better
customer service will beat out competitors. Insurance companies also use higher investment returns and a variety
of insurance investment products to try to lure in customers. In the long run, we're likely to see more consolidation
in the insurance industry. Larger companies prefer to take over or merge with other companies rather than spend
the money to market and advertise to people.

Key Links

 A.M. Best - An excellent source for insurance related information and statistics.
 Insure.com - An insurance guide comparing hundreds of companies, and offering thousands of educational
articles.

The Telecommunications Industry

Think of telecommunications as the world's biggest machine. Strung together by complex networks, telephones, mobile
phones and internet-linked PCs, the global system touches nearly all of us. It allows us to speak, share thoughts and do
business with nearly anyone, regardless of where in the world they might be. Telecom operating companies make all this
happen.
Not long ago, the telecommunications industry was comprised of a club of big national and regional operators. Over the
past decade, the industry has been swept up in rapid deregulation and innovation. In many countries around the world,
government monopolies are now privatized and they face a plethora of new competitors. Traditional markets have been
turned upside down, as the growth in mobile services out paces the fixed line and the internet starts to replace voice as
the staple business. (For more on this process, read State-Run Economies: From Public To Private.)

Plain old telephone calls continue to be the industry's biggest revenue generator, but thanks to advances in network
technology, this is changing. Telecom is less about voice and increasingly about text and images. High-speed internet
access, which delivers computer-based data applications such as broadband information services and interactive
entertainment, is rapidly making its way into homes and businesses around the world. The main broadband telecom
technology - Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) - ushers in the new era. The fastest growth comes from services delivered over
mobile networks.

Of all the customer markets, residential and small business markets are arguably the toughest. With literally hundreds of
players in the market, competitors rely heavily on price to slog it out for households' monthly checks; success rests largely
on brand name strength and heavy investment in efficient billing systems. The corporate market, on the other hand,
remains the industry's favorite. Big corporate customers - concerned mostly about the quality and reliability of their
telephone calls and data delivery - are less price-sensitive than residential customers. Large multinationals, for instance,
spend heavily on telecom infrastructure to support far-flung operations. They are also happy to pay for premium services
like high-security private networks and videoconferencing.

Telecom operators also make money by providing network connectivity to other telecom companies that need it, and by
wholesaling circuits to heavy network users like internet service providers and large corporations. Interconnected and
wholesale markets favor those players with far-reaching networks.

Key Ratios/Terms

Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA): An indicator of a company's financial
performance calculated as revenue less expenses (excluding tax, interest, depreciation and amortization).

Churn Rate: The rate at which customers leave for a competitor. Largely due to fierce competition, the telecom industry
boasts - or, rather, suffers - the highest customer churn rate of any industry. Strong brand name marketing and service
quality tends to mitigate churn.

Average Revenue Per User (ARPU): Used most in the context of a telecom operator's subscriber base, ARPU
sometimes offers a useful measure of growth performance. ARPU levels get tougher to sustain competition, and
increased churn exerts a downward pressure. ARPU for data services have been slowly increasing.

Broadband: High-speed internet access technology.

Telecommunications Act: Enacted by the U.S. Congress on February 1, 1996, and signed into law by President Bill
Clinton in 1996, the law's main purpose was to stimulate competition in the U.S. telecom sector.

Analyst Insight
It is hard to avoid the conclusion that size matters in telecom. It is an expensive business; contenders need to be large
enough and produce sufficient cash flow to absorb the costs of expanding networks and services that become obsolete
seemingly overnight. Transmission systems need to be replaced as frequently as every two years. Big companies that
own extensive networks - especially local networks that stretch directly into customers' homes and businesses - are less
reliant on interconnecting with other companies to get calls and data to their final destinations. By contrast, smaller
players must pay for interconnection more often in order to finish the job. For little operators hoping to grow big some day,
the financial challenges of keeping up with rapid technological change and depreciation can be monumental.

Earnings can be a tricky issue when analyzing telecom companies. Many companies have little or no earnings to speak of.
Analysts, as a result, are often forced to turn to measures besides price-earnings ratio (P/E) to gauge valuation.

Price-to-sales ratio (price/sales) is the probably simplest of the valuation approaches: take the market capitalization of a
company and divide it by sales over the past 12 months. No estimates are involved. The lower the ratio, the better.
Price/sales is a reasonably effective alternative when evaluating telecom companies that have no earnings; it is also
useful in evaluating mature companies.

Another popular performance yardstick is EBITDA. EBITDA provides a way for investors to gauge the profit performance
and operating results of telecom companies with large capital expenses. Companies that have spent heavily
on infrastructure will generally report large losses in their earnings statements. EBITDA helps determine whether that new
multimillion dollar fiberoptic network, for instance, is making money each month, or losing even more. By stripping away
interest, taxes and capital expenses, it allows investors to analyze whether the baseline business is profitable on a regular
basis.

Investors should be mindful of cash flow. EBITDA gives an indication of profitability, whereas cash flow measures how
much money is actually flowing through the telecom operator at any given period of time. Is the company making enough
to repay its loans and cover working capital? A telecom company can be recording rising profits year-by-year while its
cash flow is ebbing away. Cash flow is the sum of new borrowings plus money from any share issues, plus trading profit,
plus any depreciation.

Keep an eye on the balance sheet and borrowing. Telecom operators frequently have to ring up substantial debt to
finance capital expenditure. Net debt/EBITDA provides a useful comparative measure. Again, the lower the ratio, the more
comfortably the operator can handle its debt obligations. Credit rating agencies like Moody's and Standard & Poor's (S&P)
take this ratio very seriously when evaluating operators' borrowing risk.

Porter's 5 Forces Analysis

1. Threat of New Entrants. It comes as no surprise that in the capital-intensive telecom industry the biggest barrier
to entry is access to finance. To cover high fixed costs, serious contenders typically require a lot of cash. When
capital markets are generous, the threat of competitive entrants escalates. When financing opportunities are less
readily available, the pace of entry slows. Meanwhile, ownership of a telecom license can represent a huge
barrier to entry. In the U.S., for instance, fledgling telecom operators must still apply to the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) to receive regulatory approval and licensing. There is also a finite amount of
"good" radio spectrum that lends itself to mobile voice and data applications. In addition, it is important to
remember that solid operating skills and management experience is fairly scarce, making entry even more difficult.
2. Power of Suppliers. At first glance, it might look like telecom equipment suppliers have considerable bargaining
power over telecom operators. Indeed, without high-tech broadband switching equipment, fiber-optic cables,
mobile handsets and billing software, telecom operators would not be able to do the job of transmitting voice and
data from place to place. But there are actually a number of large equipment makers around. There are enough
vendors, arguably, to dilute bargaining power. The limited pool of talented managers and engineers, especially
those well versed in the latest technologies, places companies in a weak position in terms of hiring and salaries.
3. Power of Buyers. With increased choice of telecom products and services, the bargaining power of buyers is
rising. Let's face it; telephone and data services do not vary much, regardless of which companies are selling
them. For the most part, basic services are treated as a commodity. This translates into customers seeking low
prices from companies that offer reliable service. At the same time, buyer power can vary somewhat between
market segments. While switching costs are relatively low for residential telecom customers, they can get higher
for larger business customers, especially those that rely more on customized products and services.
4. Availability of Substitutes. Products and services from non-traditional telecom industries pose
serious substitution threats. Cable TV and satellite operators now compete for buyers. The cable guys, with their
own direct lines into homes, offer broadband internet services, and satellite links can substitute for high-speed
business networking needs. Railways and energy utility companies are laying miles of high-capacity telecom
network alongside their own track and pipeline assets. Just as worrying for telecom operators is the internet: it is
becoming a viable vehicle for cut-rate voice calls. Delivered by ISPs - not telecom operators - "internet telephony"
could take a big bite out of telecom companies' core voice revenues.
5. Competitive Rivalry. Competition is "cut throat". The wave of industry deregulation together with the receptive
capital markets of the late 1990s paved the way for a rush of new entrants. New technology is prompting a raft of
substitute services. Nearly everybody already pays for phone services, so all competitors now must lure
customers with lower prices and more exciting services. This tends to drive industry profitability down. In addition
to low profits, the telecom industry suffers from high exit barriers, mainly due to its specialized equipment.
Networks and billing systems cannot really be used for much else, and their swift obsolescence
makes liquidation pretty difficult.
Key Links
Telecommunications – A monthly magazine and that website provides news and analysis on the global telecom
industry.
The Federal Communications Commission – The U.S. government's telecom regulatory body.
The Utilities Industry
You've probably noticed that the utilities industry is not quite what it used to be. Once considered the quintessential
safe widow-and-orphan stocks, electricity companies are undergoing big changes as they respond to regulatory
changes, demand fluctuations and price volatility and new competition.
In the past, big regional monopolies ran the whole show, all the way from power generation through to retail supply. But
we are starting to see some disintegration of the industry structures that once led the electricity industry. Broadly speaking,
the industry is breaking down into four supplier segments:
 Generators: These operators create electrical power. While established utilities continue to build and operate
plants that produce electricity, a growing number of so-called "merchant generators" build power capacity on a
speculative basis or have acquired utility-divested plants. These companies then market their output at
competitive rates in unregulated markets.
 Energy Network Operators: Grid operators, regional network operators and distribution network operators sell
access to their networks to retail service providers. Heavily regulated, they operate as so-called natural
monopolies, because investments made to duplicate their far-reaching networks would be not only overly
expensive, but also redundant.
 Energy Traders and Marketers: By buying and selling energy futures and other derivatives and creating
complex "structured products," these companies do something very useful: they help utilities and power-hungry
businesses secure a dependable supply of electricity at a stable, predictable price. Traders can also boost their
returns by wagering on the direction of power prices.
 Energy Service Providers and Retailers: In most U.S. states, consumers can now choose their own retail
service providers. In places where the electricity grid has been opened to third parties, new players are entering
the market. They buy power at competitive prices from transmission operators and energy traders and then sell it
to end users - often competitively bundled with gas, water and even financial services.
Expect consumption of electricity to swell as the world becomes increasingly electrified. The Energy Information
Administration projects that 355 gigawatts of new electric generating capacity - or more than 40% more than the industry
currently supplies - will be needed by 2020 to meet growing demand.
While upward consumption growth is almost guaranteed over the coming decades, the short-term direction of the market
still remains a risky bet. Demand for electricity - whether it's used to run heaters or air conditioners - fluctuates on a daily
and seasonal basis. An unusually mild winter, for instance, can moderate consumption and squeeze generator revenues.
Gauging the appropriate level of investment in generation capacity is never an easy task.
At the same time, wholesale electricity prices are no longer set by regulatory agencies; for the most part, they are free to
fluctuate with supply and demand. This heightens the risk of uncontrollable price increases. Electricity typically costs $10
to $20 per megawatt hour. But if conditions are right, it can very quickly go to $5,000 or $10,000 per megawatt hour.
Wrestling with pricing risk is a full-time job for utility managers. In a deregulated market, forwards and futures options
provide energy buyers with the tools to help hedge against unexpected price swings. (For more insight, read Fueling
Futures In The Energy Market.)
Despite efforts to loosen up the industry, authorities are still not completely comfortable leaving utilities alone to the
vagaries of the market. The U.S. wholesale market was deregulated in 1996, and the industry has been further liberated
on a state-by-state basis since. The process, however, is often marked by political wrangling between consumer and
other special-interest groups. Regarded by authorities as natural monopolies, transmission and distribution operations will
likely remain highly regulated service areas. Legislators, sensitive to fall-out from unexpected price spikes, want to have a
say on retail pricing.
Power generation is a lightning rod for environmental regulation. Approval for new coal-powered plants is tough to obtain,
despite much progress in developing so-called cleaner coal. Natural gas burns cleaner than coal, but still creates some
emissions. Nuclear plants, which supply about 20% of U.S. electric power, still operate under the shadow of the Three
Mile Island and Chernobyl accidents. The push for cleaner energy ignites interest in renewable sources like hydro power
but also solar, wind and biomass. Regulation and environmental issues will likely remain at the top of utility boardroom
agendas. (To learn more, read Clean Or Green Technology Investing.)
Key Ratios/Terms
Power Purchase Agreements (PPA): A contract entered into by a power producer and its customers. PPAs require the
power producer to take on the risk of supplying power at a specified price for the life of the agreement - regardless of price
fluctuations.
Megawatt Hour: The basic industrial unit for pricing electricity, equal to one thousand kilowatts of power supplied
continuously for one hour. One kWh equals 1,000 watt hours. One kWh = 3.306 cubic feet of natural gas. An average
household uses 0.8 to 1.3 MWh/month.
Load: The amount of electricity delivered or required at any specific point or points on a system. The load of an electricity
system is affected by many factors and changes on a daily, seasonal and annual basis. Load management attempts to
shift load from peak use periods to other periods of the day or year.
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC): Regulation in the U.S. electricity industry is provided by the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission, which oversees rates and service standards as well as interstate power transmission.
Public Utility Holding Company Act: Enacted during the Great Depression, this act was designed to prevent industry
consolidation. Utility executives speculate that the act's repeal will unleash a wave of mergers among publicly traded utility
firms.
Analyst Insight
The allure of utility and power as investment safe havens has faded as new and riskier business models populate the
industry. Utility monopolies once attracted investors with reliable earnings and fat dividends; today the same companies,
operating in open markets, divert cash into expansion opportunities while they try to keep growth-hungry competitors at
bay. As the utility industry evolves, as markets grow more volatile and as regulations change, investors can expect more
lucrative opportunities. Simultaneously, they must learn to embrace more risk.
Firms that make the bulk of their money from wholesale trading, arguably carry the highest risk. Their shares react
instantaneously to wholesale energy markets' wild price swings, credit ratings, and news headlines. Power trading
companies can make a lot of money for investors, but they can also lose them a lot. They demand close investor scrutiny.
Risk-averse investors should, for the moment, seek out players with features that best reflect those of the old
fashioned monopolies: power transmission and distribution. Still regulated, these companies are largely buffered from wild
swings of commodity trading and prices. On the other hand, they offer - at best - only modest returns.
Investors ought to keep an eye on debt levels. High debt puts a strain on credit ratings, weakening new power generators'
ability to finance capital expenditure. Poor credit ratings make it awfully difficult for traders to purchase energy contracts
on the open market. Leverage, measured as debt/equity ratio, offers a good instrument for comparing indebtedness and
credit worthiness. Rating agencies like Moody's and Standard & Poor's (S&P) say 50% is a prudent ratio for merchant
power operators. Companies in more stable, regulated markets can afford debt/equity ratios that are a tad higher.
While utility stocks are no longer synonymous with big dividends, that doesn't mean that dividends no longer matter.
Utilities still go to great lengths to ensure distribution of cash to shareholders; relative to others, the industry offers good
income potential. Dividend yield, measured as the annual dividend/market price at the time of purchase, probably offers
the best tool for gauging the income generated by utilities stocks. Besides, a solid dividend yield suggests a more
attractive proposition for conservative investors.
Don't ignore the good old price-earnings ratio (P/E) P/E ratio. It remains the key yardstick for comparing players in the
industry.
Value in the utilities industry will be determined not only by the health of the companies' balance sheets and income
statements, but by their corporate reputations as well. In an industry that is under constant scrutiny by regulators,
environmentalists and ordinary people, corporate image really matters.
Porter's 5 Forces Analysis

1. Threat of New Entrants. Incumbent utility players enjoy considerable barriers to entry. Setting up new generation
plants carries high fixed costs and new power producers need a lot of upfront capital to enter the market. Gaining
regulatory approval to build new plants can be a long and complicated process for merchant generators.
Achieving brand-name recognition and the trust required to convince consumers to switch from incumbent utility
providers is not just costly but also time consuming. Meanwhile, once a power plant is built and a market
established, the cost of serving one more customer or offering one more kilowatt-hour is minimal. This is a barrier
because new entrants can only hope to realize similar unit costs by rapidly capturing a large market share. There
is also a relative shortage of talented, experienced managers for which new entrants must compete. Nonetheless,
the structural unbundling trend does offer entry opportunities, especially at the trading and retailing end of the
market where upfront capital requirements are less onerous.
2. Power of Suppliers. The power systems supply business is dominated by a small handful of companies. There
isn't a lot of cut-throat competition between them; they have significant power over generation companies.
Meanwhile, as the industry's vertical structures dissolve into a chain of generation suppliers, network suppliers,
traders and retailers expect the leverage of any one of them to be reduced. As profits are spread over more
players, each one's share will shrink.
3. Power of Buyers. The balance of power is shifting toward buyers. Because one company's electricity is no
different from another's, service can be treated as a commodity. This translates into buyers seeking lower prices
and better contract terms from energy providers. Commercial and industrial customers, in particular, have great
leverage. Long-term power purchasing agreements, for instance, are now the norm for commercial buyers; by
replacing more traditional short-term contracts, these shift much of the risk associated with wholesale pricing from
buyers and onto utilities. Meanwhile, consumers are forming online communities and buying groups and
cooperatives in bids to bolster their market power. As the industry becomes more competitive, customers ought to
enjoy more power over utilities.
4. Availability of Substitutes. Power doesn't have a substitute; it is a necessity in the modern world. Short-term
demand for power is inelastic. This means that price hikes do little to diminish consumption, at least in the near
term. However, while there are no existing substitutes for electrons or natural gas, there are alternative ways of
generating them. Industrial groups have launched programs to develop small generators. Microturbines and fuel
cells are on the market horizon. These small generators could allow users to bypass traditional power grids
altogether, or to limit the use of the grid when prices rise too much over time. (For more insight, read Economics
Basics: Elasticity.)
5. Competitive Rivalry. Rivalry among competitors is getting increasingly fierce. Utilities must fight for market share
in order to create the economies of scale needed to lower costs and remain competitive. Because nearly
everybody already uses a utility, competitors are forced to rely mainly on lower prices and to capture market
share. This tends to drive industry profitability down. Competitors try to break out of commoditizationby trying to
 differentiate services, segmenting the market and bundling value-added services. However, the characteristics of
the electricity market threaten to neutralize such efforts.
Key Links
 Platts Global Energy - A comprehensive source of online business new/analysis
 Energy & Utilities Review - Published by the Financial Times - online news and analysis/special reports
 McKinsey Quarterly - This energy, resources and materials page contains useful articles covering industry
issues

The Internet Industry

Let's face it, the current climate for internet portal companies is a cold one. In the wake of the internet market crash, portal
players are taking a closer look at their business models. The pressure is on to transform users into paying customers -
converting them into hard cash. While seeking to reduce churn and reach new markets, they are also searching for new
revenue streams - ones that actually produce the goods.

The first web portals were online services, such as AOL, that provided access to the web. Others were search engines
like Alta Vista and Excite that offered users ways of finding the information they were looking for on the web. But by now
most of the traditional search engines have transformed themselves into multipurpose web portals to attract and keep a
larger audience. At a consumer internet portal like Yahoo!, a whole host of information and services can be found. Check
email, update you investment portfolio, shop for a car or vacation, do research for a term paper or even join a discussion
group. Portals users can do it all.

Users rarely have to pay a dime for portal services. In a bid to replicate the broadcast TV revenue model, portals supply
free content and services that will attract enough users to make a profit from advertising alone. Indeed, as online usage
continues to increase - thanks at least in part to the vast amount of free information and services that are offered - this
appears to make sense.

Yet at the same time, it costs money to service such a vast pool of freeloaders. Costs associated with attracting and
keeping users - namely the costs of marketing, sales, content purchasing and production, plus reliable delivery - could
actually eliminate bottom-line gains from greater usage. Over-reliance on the advertising as the prime, and more
frequently, the sole revenue stream can be a risky proposition, especially given the volatile nature of the advertising
market.

A portfolio of revenue-generation sources appears to be the way forward, and portal operators are starting to open up to
new models. The search for real revenues has led the move toward charging for content. The big challenge will be to
significantly expand paid services without alienating users who've come to expect portals to be free. Meanwhile, portals
are pitching themselves as eCommerce sites, hoping to enjoy some of the same successes of online retail portals like
Amazon.com.

Key Ratios/Terms

Click-Through Rate (CTR): Measures what percentage of people clicked on the ad to arrive at the destination site. As
such, the CTR is regarded as a measure of the immediate response to an online advertisement.

"Stickiness" Factor: Otherwise known as the average time spent per user on a web portal, this metric directly relates to
the loyalty of users, which translates into brand and market power.

Burn Rate: The rate at which a portal is spending its capital while waiting for profitable operation. Most internet
companies, still in their early stages of development, tend to spend cash faster than they can generate revenue.

Alliances: Who are the portal's customers, allies and distribution partners? Obviously, this is a difficult factor to measure.
But without a strong network of alliances, especially distribution partners, which are key to audience reach and expansion,
a portal will have a hard time surviving.

X-Rated: The dirty secret of the internet, porn portals account for vast amounts of traffic and enormous revenues. This
sub-industry offers lessons for the whole internet industry: when users really value online content, they pay for it.

Analyst Insight
Survivors of the dotcom crash range from loss-making portal operators with extremely questionable merit, to a handful of
firms able to squeeze out some profits. Given online companies' brief track records, combined with the sharp swings in
growth trends and profitability, investment decisions can be challenging, to say the least.
One thing is for sure: the biggest portals attract the biggest advertising revenue. The bulk of web advertising spending
consistently goes to sites with the highest volumes of traffic.

Reliance on the advertising-supported model as the prime revenue stream for portals can be risky. Ad spending has a big
discretionary component that is subject to the whims of often fickle and volatile advertising buyers. Shifting consumer
demand and corporate investment levels have a big impact. For a lot of portals, this translates into unpredictable
revenues; in down markets, non-advertising internet players tend to enjoy better valuations than advertising specialists. In
a nutshell, investors should keep a close eye on current trends in advertising, and try to monitor the pulse of leading
advertisers.

Analysts typically rely on comparative ratios to gauge value. One measure has gained general acceptance: the ratio of
stock price to annualized sales, or revenue per share. The popularity of the price to sales ratio (reflects the belief that it's
more important for internet portals to grow revenue than profit; revenue is a proxy for marketplace acceptance and market
share.)

EV/EBITDA is another common, albeit increasingly criticized, industry yardstick. EV, or enterprise value, is equivalent to
the company's market capitalization less any long-term debt. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and
amortization (EBITDA) is calculated as revenue minus expenses (excluding tax, interest, depreciation and amortization).
(For more insight, read EV Gets Into Gear.)

Both price/sales and EV/EBITDA, comparisons are not as straightforward as traditional price-earnings ratios (P/E
ratio). Earnings means essentially the same thing regardless of industry or sector, but revenue and EBITDA demand
closer consideration of the nature of the business.

Consider Yahoo!, a multipurpose service portal, and retail portal Amazon.com. Comparing the two can be tricky. Retailers'
revenues and expenses differ markedly from those of service providers. Amazon immediately pays out of revenue the
cost of merchandise and shipping. Yahoo doesn't sell merchandise; its revenues come from selling ad space to those who
do. The costs of supporting additional content, advertisers and usage are tiny compared to paying for books and CDs.
Expect Yahoo! to enjoy a premium valuation over Amazon.

But simply comparing portal stocks against one another says nothing about their intrinsic value. When there is a major
correction in the overall stock market, or simply in the internet sector, portals that appear under-valued relative to peers
can be battered just as hard, if not even more. Indeed, the news and sentiment that so heavily impacts portal stocks can
wipe out quantitative measures of valuation. With empirical value carrying less weight than in other sectors, internet
investors will find that it pays to be cautious.

Porter's 5 Forces Analysis

1. Threat of New Entrants. You do not need to look far to realize that the cost of entry has fallen fast. It used to
costs an arm and a leg to launch a portal. The price of computer software and servers and network bandwidth - of
which portals consume a substantial amount - was enormous. Yet costs are falling fast, as off-the shelf systems
can now do what only customized technologies could do just a few of years ago and at a fraction of the price. At
the same time, brainy web developers, which were scarce at the height of the internet market boom, are now
much easier for new entrants to find and have become more affordable keep. However, the apparent success of
companies like Amazon, is not based on their low entry cost into book retailing, but the very large sums of money
spent on promotion and growing their business. Entering a new market with a new brand still calls for deep
pockets.
2. Power of Suppliers. Portals generally have little power over suppliers. Basically, this is because they don't
actually own much. Most of the information and services they deliver to users is supplied by outside companies –
stock brokerages, new magazines and the like. Expect content suppliers to enjoy growing power, especially
considering portals will not able to give content away forever. At the same time, internet portals rely on telecom
network operators for a steady diet of internet bandwidth. Granted, the telecom bandwidth business is getting
increasingly competitive and prices are falling fast. But once systems are hooked up to telecom operator networks,
it can be awfully difficult to switch to a new supplier.
3. Power of Buyers. Internet portals have two sets of buyers: visitors and advertisers. Both enjoy considerable
power over portals. Competing sites are just a click away; URL book-marking makes the job of switching to other
sites even easier for users. In fact, portals are in constant danger of a mass desertion of users to other sites
because in most cases, customers make no financial commitment to the service. Portals' heavy reliance on
advertising dollars means that ad spenders can squeeze increasingly better terms for banner space.
4. Availability of Substitutes. Internet portals must defend themselves from a raft of substitutes. The most obvious
are other websites that offer the same, or similar, information and services. Most portals do little more than
 aggregate information and services that already exists on the internet; original content suppliers represent a
readily available set of substitutes. In most cases, they are just a click away. There are more, less obvious
substitutes as well, such as television and magazines. Television's clear, moving images never suffer slow
connections; magazines can be rolled up and carried on the bus. Don't forget that the good old telephone
directories - both white and yellow pages - are still very convenient business search tools.
5. Competitive Rivalry. Feeble barriers to entry, a slew of substitutes and steadily increasingly buyer power
combine to create a disturbing impact: fierce competition and industry rivalry. Portal competitors now must lure
customers with lower prices and heavy investment in more exciting content services. All of this tends to drive
industry profitability down, threatening the survival of players who can't compete.

Key Links

 Internet Week - Industry news and analysis

 Traffick - The information portal for the portal and search engine industry
 Nielsen/NetRatings - Provides a listing of the most-visited Internet sites, updated weekly and monthly

4 Tips to Evaluate Growth Companies

Revenue growth, especially average revenue growth over the previous three to five years, is a helpful metric for investors
to consider when evaluating potential growth stocks. However, looking at revenues, even rapidly growing revenues, can
be misleading for investors because revenues viewed in isolation fail to indicate a company’s current profitability or future
prospects for profit.
More important metrics and factors for investors to use in identifying strong potential growth stocks include profit margins
and earnings growth, efficient use of capital and a company’s position within its industry.
Profitability
Unless the companies can go to the capital market to raise debts or to issue additional shares, growth is most commonly
fueled by profits. Rapid growth of a business requires substantial capital expenditures. This is one reason that growth
stocks don’t typically offer much in the way of dividends, because the company retains earnings to spend on business
expansion.
The two best profitability metrics for investors to consider in evaluating growth stocks are operating margin and net margin.
Operating margin is not only a solid gauge of pretax profitability, but also a good measure of the strength of a company’s
management. Operating margin reveals how successful a company’s executive team is in controlling operating costs such
as materials, labor and shipping.
As with all equity evaluation metrics, operating margin is most helpfully examined in relation to industry averages,
especially when compared to a company’s most direct competitors. A company with a substantially higher operating
margin than its industry peers has distinct advantages, both in terms of financial stability and in having extra working
capital to devote to business growth or to more easily weather industry or general economic downturns.
Net margin reveals a company’s bottom-line profit position, which is the proportion of total revenues that translate into
actual net profit. Net margin, like operating margin, is most useful when compared to the margins of industry peers. It’s
also important to consider the general trend in profitability over time, whether a company’s profit margin is expanding or
shrinking.
A good variation to gauge a company’s net profit is earnings per share (EPS), which reveals the per-share allocation of a
company’s profits. EPS is an especially important metric, because it is a key factor in determining share price, and also
because it is used in the calculation of another important performance metric, the price/earnings ratio (P/E).
Growth investors like to see projected EPS growth of at least 10 to 15%. However, it’s important to take projected EPS
growth figures with a healthy dose of skepticism. Projected EPS figures are just estimates from analysts, and estimates
sometimes turn out to be woefully inaccurate.
Efficient Use of Capital
A strong clue to a company’s growth potential can be gleaned from examining how efficiently it utilizes capital in order to
expand market share, or to develop profitable new products or services.
Two good measures of capital efficiency are the return on assets (ROA) ratio and the return on equity (ROE) ratio. Both
metrics are designed to show how effectively a company utilizes existing assets to generate additional profits. The ROA,
or net earnings divided by total assets, shows what kind of return a company generates by utilizing its asset base. ROE,
or net income divided by total shareholders’ equity, reveals how effectively a company generates a return on the capital
provided by investors.
Industry Position
There’s no simple mathematical formula that delineates the strength of a company’s position within its particular industry,
but this can often be a critical factor in determining a company’s growth prospects. Growth investors seeking to identify
companies with the highest potential also examine less tangible factors such as a company's success in establishing itself
as a brand. Prime examples of strong brand presence are The Coca-Cola Company , apple
Nike .Another industry position factor to consider is a company’s economic moat, or whatever competitive advantage it
has that provides it with some level of protection in regard to its market share and profits. Economic moats can exist in the
form of low-cost production capabilities, proprietary technology, or high barriers to entry by new companies in an industry.
Long-established cell phone companies such as Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ
Verizon Communications Inc have economic moats by virtue of their massive existing communications infrastructure. It
would require huge investments of capital and a considerable amount of time for a new cell phone company to build a
communications network sufficient to compete effectively with Verizon.
Aiming for Growth
Growth stocks are commonly defined as stocks with reasonably expected annual growth potential in share price of
approximately 10 to 20%. That’s essentially a stock that is expected to double in price within five to seven years. In reality,
a good growth stock is any stock whose share price appreciation outperforms overall market or industry averages. To
pinpoint the very best growth stocks, investors consider a company from a variety of angles that provide insight into its
efficiency, profitability and industry position.