ING to Launch New Advisor Platform in Q4

ING U.S., through its broker-dealer, ING Financial Partners, says it will roll out a new wealth-management platform for its roughly 1,500 affiliated independent financial advisors and their clients in the fourth quarter of 2013.

“The new platform consolidates a household’s financial information into one place, making it easier for both the client and his or her financial advisor to see the complete picture, as well as analyze budgets, investments and retirement projections,” said Christina Hurley (left), head of products for ING U.S. Retirement Solutions Individual Markets, in a press release on Wednesday.

“We’ve been listening to our financial advisors and are responding with the tools and support they need for their advisory business. We know that their clients need holistic financial planning, and this platform can help align their financial plans to their goals,” explained Hurley.

ING U.S. says that the new platform is based on two key parts: one that offers new online capabilities for both advisors and clients to use independently or at the same time, and another that brings advisors enhanced capabilities to help them manage their business, including the ability to make financial transactions in a single, integrated environment.

Other key benefits and features of the platform are:

“As the need for financial advice continues to grow, tools that help to deepen relationships and accentuate a financial advisor’s value will be increasingly important,” said Andre Robinson, head of advisory business development at ING Financial Partners, in a statement.

“Our new platform will help to increase real-time collaboration with clients. Clients want a complete view of their financial picture at their fingertips, while advisors want tools that help them assess their clients’ financial situation and take action,” Robinson noted.

ING U.S. (VOYA),the American insurance entity of ING Group NV, is in the process of changing its name to Voya Financial in the near future. It completed its IPO in April and expects the name change to be complete by April 2016. The U.S. unit is led by former American International Group executive Rodney Martin.

Fred's' Sales Improve in June - Analyst Blog

Recently, Fred's Inc. (FRED) reported decent total sales and comparable sales for Jun 2013, against the year-ago period. Comparable store sales for the month climbed 4.5% compared with a fall of 4.0% in the year-ago month.

Customer traffic increased in June on the back of the reconfiguration of general merchandise and improved weather conditions.

Growth in script counts led to positive comparable store sales in the pharmacy department for the first time in 10 months.

Decent sales in the Lawn & Garden, Summer Toys and Seasonal departments boosted total sales for the month by 3.0% year over year to $187.7 million.

For the first five months of fiscal 2013, comparable store sales were flat compared to the same period a year ago. Fred's' total sales inched up 1.0% to $841.6 million compared with $835.1 million for the same period last year.

After closing 20 stores and opening a net of two new stores and one new pharmacy locationduring Jun 2013 Fred's now operates 697 discount general merchandise stores, including 21 franchised Fred's stores.

Guidance

Second quarter of fiscal 2013

Fred's reiterated its second-quarter guidance keeping in view the results of the first two months of the quarter. For the second quarter of fiscal 2013, Fred's forecasts its total sales to increase in the range of 2% to 4%, while it expects comparable store sales to be flat in the second quarter. The company expects earnings to remain within a range of 6 cents – 9 cents per share in the quarter.

Management is well on track to improve its pharmacy department growth, expand its specialty drug program, and roll out its expanded auto and hardware programs. However, the company continues to expect tough retail conditions to continue across the markets in fiscal 2013. In addition, declining comparable store sales over the past several months remains a concern.

Currently, Fred's carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Other diversified retailers! worth considering include Restoration Hardware (RH), Dollar Tree, Inc. (DLTR) and Ross Stores (ROST). While Restoration carries a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Dollar Tree and Ross Stores hold a Zacks Rank #2.

Did Verizon Make A Smart Move?

The recent purchase of Vodafone's remaining interest in Verizon Communications creates an interesting opportunity says Jim Jubak, but it probably is not the one you think.

I normally don't like to buy stocks that are predicated on a company not executing its strategy, but I think if you're looking at the recent deal between Vodafone and Verizon—over the Verizon wireless partnership, that's exactly what you see when you look at Vodafone. So Verizon and Vodafone had a partnership that controlled Verizon wireless. Verizon has spent $172 billion, some ungodly amount of money, to go out and buy the stake in Verizon wireless that it didn't have, so it gets the whole thing.

What Vodafone gets is a lot of cash, and what Vodafone has said looking around is, "Uh-oh, if we have a lot of cash and if we don't put it to work, we become an acquisition candidate ourselves." Because we've got a lot of cash, we've got some decent assets, and, in fact, right now, it looks like we're a pretty good pure play on Europe for a company like AT&T, that wants to build up its market share in the Euro zone.

So, the strategy that Vodafone is going to pursue to try to avoid becoming an acquisition candidate itself is to go out and make small acquisitions. There aren't a whole lot of acquisitions, you can buy a few players in Europe, you can buy some players in the emerging markets. The idea is that they'll be able to spend down their cash, at least the cash that remains after they have paid their dividend, and Verizon is also going to pay part of those prices in stock, so they won't have all cash, but basically, the idea is that you spend enough money so that you don't have a lot of cash sitting there, so that an acquirer can't use your cash to basically acquire you, and that's the strategy.

Now, I'm hoping that once the dust is cleared, that Vodafone is reasonably priced enough, so that I might actually be able to put some money on the hope that this strategy doesn't succeed, because I think Vodafone, as an acquirer of other small wireless companies is a whole lot less interesting as an investment, than Vodafone as a company that's going to be acquired. The likely acquirer, looking at markets, you know, looking at the size of the companies and various sundry pieces of who owns pieces of what, is AT&T. So, what I'm looking for is Vodafone being able to spend $5 billion, $6, $7, $8 billion, but still having a lot of cash, being a very attractive candidate, and there being some bid from AT&T for those assets in Europe. That, I think, would be the best thing that would happen if you're an investor in Vodafone is for Vodafone's strategy not to work.

This is Jim Jubak for the MoneyShow.com video network.

Is BlackBerry Back?

This Friday will be a big day for BlackBerry (NASDAQ: BBRY  ) . The troubled smartphone maker is hoping for a renaissance, powered by a variety of new phones running the company's QNX-based BB10 OS. The company's upcoming earnings report will be the second since BlackBerry 10 smartphones started to roll out worldwide. It's also the first report since the launch of the Q10: the first BB10 phone with BlackBerry's signature QWERTY keyboard. The report will therefore provide some insight into the demand for these new models.

The BlackBerry Q10.

The new BlackBerry platform is nowhere near challenging market leaders Apple and Google, but investors hope it will be able to carve out its own niche in the rapidly growing smartphone market. However, observers are sharply divided in their beliefs about just how much traction BlackBerry 10 is gaining. Next week's earnings report and the associated conference call should help a lot in terms of understanding whether BlackBerry can mount a real comeback.

Analysts divided
As my Foolish colleague Tim Brugger recently highlighted, BlackBerry analysts just don't know what to expect from the company. Last Friday, an analyst at Societe Generale upgraded the company, writing that demand for the new BB10 phones has been stronger than expected, and the company could have sold more than 5 million units last quarter. Analysts at RBC and Jefferies are also expecting strong results for the recently ended quarter.

However, there is an even larger pool of analysts who are convinced that BlackBerry is on the brink of collapse. This Wednesday, an analyst at Bernstein Research cut his rating on the stock, arguing that consumer demand for the new BB10 phones has fallen off rapidly. Similarly, longtime BlackBerry bear James Faucette of Pacific Crest opined that the vast majority of BB10 phones being produced are going into inventory, and that global BB10 phone demand is less than 500,000 units per month.

Let's see some numbers
Opinion on Wall Street is thus hopelessly divided. Over the past six months or so, a few analysts have crossed over from the bear camp to the bull camp or vice-versa, but for the most part they have become ever more convinced that their initial beliefs were true. Furthermore, the market is flooded with a variety of rumors about BlackBerry supply and demand. We need more hard data to get a decent sense of the company's chances.

BlackBerry investors should be looking for two things on Friday: a sales number for BlackBerry 10 phones (anything above 4 million is good, while anything under 3 million is bad), and some commentary on sell-through. Sell-through refers to the number of units actually in the hands of users, and thus excludes phones sold to wholesalers and retailers that are still sitting in inventory. Last quarter, CEO Thorsten Heins said that at least two-thirds to three-quarters of the units shipped by BlackBerry had already sold through to end users. That's a very strong figure, and investors need to see whether the company can repeat that performance.

What does it all mean?
Nobody thinks BlackBerry is going to rival Apple or Samsung in terms of shipment volume in the foreseeable future. However, BlackBerry has traded below book value for a long time, which implies that many people still expect the company to go out of business relatively soon. In other words, it's not really fair to compare BlackBerry with Apple, Samsung, and Google for investment purposes. If BlackBerry can carve out a small niche in the smartphone market -- perhaps 5% of the high-end and midrange segments -- investors will be thrilled. Anything beyond that is just icing on the cake.

Realistically, to accomplish this, BlackBerry needs to start by converting most of its existing subscribers to BlackBerry 10 devices. Considering how outdated the legacy BlackBerry OS is, these users ought to be very excited about the opportunity to upgrade to a much snappier BlackBerry phone. If this is true, there should be enough pent-up demand to soak up at least 4 million to 5 million Z10 and Q10 phones for the first several quarters of production.

If BlackBerry was able to ship 5 million BB10 phones last quarter, and three-quarters of them sold through to consumers during the quarter, it would strongly suggest that this "turnaround scenario" is materializing. If shipments or sell-through are notably weaker, it will confirm the bears' fears about BlackBerry getting squeezed out of the smartphone market. For now, investors need to wait and see. Hopefully, BlackBerry's future will become a lot clearer on Friday.

Tech stocks can bring in massive returns for your portfolio, very quickly. Choosing a dominant technology, product, or company to invest in can be extremely difficult. Find out "Who Will Win the War Between the 5 Biggest Tech Stocks" in The Motley Fool's latest free report -- just click here.

3 Reasons to Sell Berkshire Hathaway Stock

I'm going to attempt something a little odd today, Fools. Even though Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-B  ) stock makes up 3.7% of my real-life holdings, I'm going to be giving you three reasons to consider selling the stock today.

Why am I doing this?

Recently, Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman visited Fool headquarters in Virginia. While visiting, he talked about how a number of different biases can lead us to believe we can predict the future with relative certainty. In reality, he argued, we are just deluding ourselves.

It got me to thinking about how I don't write enough about the risks of owning the stocks I own. So, though I don't plan on selling my Berkshire Hathaway stock anytime soon, I think it's healthy for me to practice and model this behavior.

1. Buffett and Munger aren't getting any younger

Source: ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images. 

Berkshire Hathaway's amazing appreciation over the last half-century has been accomplished through the shrewd decision-making of CEO and Chairman Warren Buffett, and later, Vice Chairman Charles Munger. Buffett is 82 years old, and Munger is 89.

Judging by their performance and generally upbeat mood at this year's stockholder meeting, neither man is showing signs of slowing down. But that doesn't mean the sad day when they leave the company won't soon come.

The company's 2013 annual report states that: "Berkshire's Board of Directors has identified three current Berkshire subsidiary managers who, in their judgment, are capable of succeeding Mr. Buffett." One contender that is generally considered the front runner is insurance guru Ajit Jain. Buffett, in fact, has so much faith in Jain that he once quipped: "If Charlie, I and Ajit are ever in a sinking boat -- and you can only save one of us -- swim to Ajit." 

While its comforting to know Warren has that level of confidence, investors should remember that Buffett and Munger have been the primary drivers of Berkshire's success over the decades.

2. It's too complicated
I like to keep my investing simple. Normally, I refuse to invest in a company if I can't explain to a kindergartener how it makes money. For Berkshire, I've broken that rule, and I'm not sure that's such a great thing.

For starters, the insurance underwriting industry can be extremely complex. It is here that Ajit has excelled, but the fact that it takes such a brilliant mind to adequately handicap risk shows that very few people can actually wrap their heads around the business.

Furthermore, this list of Berkshire subsidiaries -- taken from the company's website -- demonstrates the dizzying reach of the company -- from railroads like Burlington Northern Santa Fe, to See's Candy, and just about everything in between.

Source: Berkshire Hathaway.

Because of this, for many people, an investment in Berkshire Hathaway is more about investing alongside Buffett than it is investing in the underlying businesses (which brings us right back to my first point).

3. Berkshire Hathaway stock: low growth and no dividend
The final ding to an investment in Berkshire Hathaway is the fact that the company's prospects for significant growth are hampered by its sheer size. Currently, Berkshire has a market cap of $190 billion, with $162 billion in revenue just last year, and $44 billion in cash and cash equivalents sitting in the bank. When you accomplish that kind of size, it is very difficult to invest in anything that could possibly yield market-beating returns.

Usually, when companies get to this size, they reward shareholders in the form of dividends. Not so for Berkshire Hathaway, however. The company has only paid one dividend in its history, and that was a $0.10 payout all the way back in 1967!

What's a Fool to do?
These are all legitimate reasons to be concerned about owning Berkshire Hathaway stock. I have certainly committed the error of investing because of Buffett, rather than because I can understand all of the moving parts that are Berkshire. Although I'll keep this in mind when reconsidering my holdings at year's end, I am comforted by the fact that Jain is on board. And the slim chance for appreciation isn't a big concern, as I've included Berkshire in my portfolio for its stability, rather than growth.

Solid companies selling at depressed prices have consistently helped generations of the world's most successful investors preserve capital, minimize risk, and achieve long-term, market-trampling returns. For one such company, read our free report: "The One REMARKABLE Stock to Own Now." Just click here to get started.

Here's Why JPMorgan Is Flying High Today

JPMorgan Chase  (NYSE: JPM  ) is on a tear this morning, as shares opened higher and continued gaining ground early in trading. Just after 10 a.m. EDT, the bank is up 3%. Following yesterday's shareholder meeting and an added bonus from management, investors may be eager to get their hands on the shares.

A quick look around
With the Congressional testimony of Ben Bernanke just underway, the banks will likely get a boost from his comments that the Fed will not end or cut back its current stimulus plan. So far, the other Big Four banks are in positive territory, but trailing JPMorgan:

The overall KBW Bank Index (DJINDICES: ^BKX  ) is up 1.3%. Citigroup is up 1.93%. Bank of America is enjoying a gain of 1.86%. Wells Fargo is a little behind, with a gain of 0.71%.

The recent rally for JPMorgan adds to the impressive gains the bank has made in the past few months. With a 13.7% rise in the past 30 days and a 31.1% gain over the past six months, the bank is on a roll -- leading many to reaffirm their confidence in management, Jamie Dimon's leadership in particular.

Meeting of the minds
Yesterday's shareholder meeting was highly anticipated and closely watched, as Wall Street waited to see if investors would vote to split up Jamie Dimon's dual CEO/Chairman roles within the bank. As many expected, the proposal to split the roles was defeated for the third year in a row. With shareholders in favor of the split only accounting for 32% of the total vote, Dimon's victory was by a larger margin than the prior year's -- which was a 60-40 split.

Either the analysts that predicted a Dimon defeat were way off base, or the threat of his leaving the bank entirely was sufficient enough to swing votes in his favor -- whatever the case, Jamie Dimon is here to stay. Whether or not you like his leadership at JPMorgan, there are plenty of examples of stellar operations and record earnings under his guidance.

Bonus time!
For all those shareholders that voted to keep Dimon in the big seat(s), management took note and announced a newly increased dividend. Upping the ante by 26%, the new dividend will pay out $0.38 per share in July. With the bank's record earnings in the first quarter, there's no real surprise that it would raise the dividend. But some continued pressure from low interest rates, slowing in the mortgage market, and some pressures in emerging markets may have caused some to believe that the increase would not be as substantial.

All in a day's work
Dimon gets to keep both of his banker hats, and shareholders get a little capital disbursement for their trouble. While that may not sit well with the 32% of investors that wanted the split, long-term shareholders should be happy with the outcome. The bank doesn't have to go through a big shuffle on the board or more headlines about Dimon's future -- it can get back to business. And while today's gains are great, they may not last as we move through the week or month. Keep an eye on the long-term prospects of the bank, and you'll be golden.

With big finance firms still trading at deep discounts to their historic norms, investors everywhere are wondering if this is the new normal, or if finance stocks are a screaming buy today. The answer depends on the company, so to help figure out whether JPMorgan is a buy today, check out The Motley Fool's premium research report on the company. Click here now for instant access!

Last Week's Big Dow Losers

Now that we're getting deeper into earnings season, investors have begun to focus more of their attention on what really matters: earnings. Other than Monday's drop, which was caused by the poor gross domestic product numbers from China, all week we saw stocks trading on earnings news more so than on economic data. And in that kind of environment, when earnings disappoint, stocks fall. That's what we saw happening all around the market this week, and it's why the major indexes moved lower over the past five trading sessions.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI  ) lost 317 points, or 2.16%, and now sits at 14,547 after 19 of its 30 components ended the week lower. The S&P 500 didn't perform much better, losing 2.11%, while the Nasdaq ended the week as the biggest loser, after dropping 2.69%.

Before we hit the Dow losers, let's look at the index's big winner. Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO  ) ended the week higher by 3.84%, even after it fell 2.41% on Monday alone. Monday's decline was probably due to an overreaction from shareholders relating to China's slowing GDP. The stock quickly turned things around and rose 5.69% on Tuesday, after the company reported better-than-expected revenue and earnings for the first quarter. Earnings per share beat analysts' estimates by $0.01 after coming in at $0.46 per share, even though revenue fell 1% to $11.04 billion, which was higher than the $11.02 billion Wall Street had expected.  

The big losers
The release of China's GDP numbers hit nearly the whole market on Monday, but most stocks rebounded. A few, however, continued to fall as the week progressed, and one of them was Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT  ) . Shares of the construction heavy-equipment manufacturer fell 5.43% this past week. After losing just less than $2 per share on Monday, it dropped another dollar on both Tuesday and Thursday.

Caterpillar releases earnings on Monday, and it will probably be another volatile day for shares. If the company misses, expect another big decline, but if Cat beats Wall Street's expectations, shares are likely to climb rapidly higher. For more about what to expect from Monday's earnings report, click here. 

Shares of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH  ) lost 4.74% this past week. The stock tumbled 3.7% on Thursday alone, after the company announced an earnings report in which it beat on the bottom line and missed on the top. But what hit the stock perhaps even harder was the announcement that a major public-sector employer had reduced its coverage from a full-risk plan to cheaper fee-based coverage. This may be a new trend the health-insurance companies will begin seeing, and if that's the case, it will most definitely hurt revenue and profits.  

And the biggest Dow loser this week was IBM (NYSE: IBM  ) , as shares dropped 10.11% over the past five trading days. The biggest decline came on Friday, when the stock fell 8.28% after the company announced earnings for the first quarter and announced that it missed on both the top and bottom lines. Analysts wanted to see revenue of $24.62 billion and earnings per share of $3.05, but IBM managed to bring in only $23.41 billion in revenue, resulting in bottom-line EPS of only $2.70. Investors clearly were disappointed with the results, but the bigger question is whether this is just a one-time fluke for IBM. Is the company is losing its luster? Investors will have to follow IBM over the next few quarters to find out, but be prepared for some volatile days ahead.

Other Dow losers this week:

Hewlett-Packard, down 6.41% Wal-Mart, down 0.34% 3M, down 1.82% AT&T, down 0.8% Cisco, down 5.01% Du Pont, down 1.26% JPMorgan Chase, down 3.63% Travelers, down 1.68% United Technologies, down 2.58% General Electric, down 7.28% Chevron, down 3.36% Boeing, down 1.04% Alcoa, down 1.7% Bank of America, down 4.19% ExxonMobil, down 1.73% McDonald's, down 3.54%

More Foolish insight
The massive wave of mobile computing has done much to unseat the major players in the PC market, including venerable technology names like Hewlett-Packard. However, HP's rapidly shifting its strategy under the new leadership of CEO Meg Whitman. But does this make HP one of the least-appreciated turnaround stories on the market, or is this a minor blip on its road to irrelevance? The Motley Fool's technology analyst details exactly what investors need to know about HP in our new premium research report. Just click here now to get your copy today.

Envestnet to Acquire UMA Firm Placemark for $66 Million

Envestnet Inc. announced Tuesday that it has agreed to acquire Placemark Holdings Inc. for $66 million in cash, giving the Chicago-based firm a stronger presence in the regional broker-dealer market, balancing Envestnet’s already strong presence in the SMA and UMA space among independent BDs and RIAs.  

“Placemark has been very successful in helping firms that have successful SMA programs,” like regional BDs that “didn’t have the capital to build their own UMA solutions, which are now more of a core offering in fee-based programs,” said Envestnet (ENV) President Bill Crager in an interview.

Stressing that unified managed accounts, or UMAs, are “not a product, but an infrastructure,” Crager said Placemark has succeeded in “helping those full-service broker-dealer firms to transition” from traditional SMA offerings to UMAs.

Placemark Chairman and CEO Lee Chertavian will join Envestnet as Group President of Envestnet|Placemark. The “most senior members” of Placemark’s management team—including Chertavian, Ron Pruitt and Richard Dion—“will remain in impactful roles” at Envestnet, Crager said. 

The integration of Placemark, including its portfolio overlay and tax ptimization offerings, onto the Envestnet platform will be done slowly and deliberately, said Crager, saying final integration could happen by late 2015 or early 2016. “We won’t rush the integration,” Crager said, since a “slower process” with plenty of time for planning will be “very helpful” to Placemark’s clients. He said by that time it will be “clearly an accretive acquisition.”

Envestnet has had much experience over the past few years in integrating firms onto its platform, from which it learned that such integration “is an extended process; we want to make sure the client has plenty of time to transition.”

As for the SMA and UMA strategies, Crager said “we have 1,500 strategies; they have 2,000,” so “there’s massive overlap,” and that even with duplicate strategies removed, “the superset together will be the largest in the industry,” which will make it easier as well for employee brokers to maintain access to their preferred managers should they go the independent advisor route.

Crager said that in acquiring Placemark — the deal is expected to close by early in the fourth quarter — it did so because it expects “down the road [that] firms will look beyond the UMA” offering alone to integrated features like performance reporting, rebalancing and due diligence on a wealth platform like Envestnet’s.

For some BDs, he said, “it will make sense” to adopt “a cloud-based, highly flexible, nuanced” integrated platform like Envestnet’s that delivers the flexibility needed in fee-based programs. Total UMA assets at the combined firm will be about $25 billion; Envestnet alone had $572 billion in assets as of the end of Q1 2014.

Are there more acquisitions in the offing? “We continue to look for opportunities," Crager said. "We evaluate a lot more opportunities than we follow through on.

"This one ticked all the boxes,” he said, referring to Placemark and its culture, people and offerings.

“We’ll be focused on how advisors’ practices are evolving, and what they expect in the next generation. Some of that we’ll build ourselves,” he concluded, while some will be provided by “strategic” moves.

---

Related on ThinkAdvisor: