Fastball Financial

Universal American (UAM) is an insurance company headquartered in New York.  Its core operations are in Medicare Advantage, but Universal American also has Medicaid operations, and is actively involved in developing ACO’s (Accountable Care Organizations).  This stock is often forgotten since it doesn’t have a big market cap, especially when compared to other, much larger insurance companies. The chart above shows how Universal American’s market cap its dwarfed by its larger rivals.  But sometimes, being forgotten can be a temporary blessing for investors.  For quite some time, Universal American has remained undervalued. Price to [...]

With cells phones rapidly proliferating throughout the world and the technology used by those phones advancing at the rate of Moore’s Law, the tower industry stands to greatly benefit.  In fact, it already has and it’s not done yet. The three main publicly traded tower companies are American Tower (AMT), SBA Communications (SBAC) and Crown Castle (CCI).  All three stocks have significantly outperformed the S&P 500 over the past four years (roughly from the market bottom in 2009). What a more long-term view?  Below is a ten-year chart that shows all [...]

Roundy’s (NYSE: RNDY) operates grocery stores in the upper midwest under the names Pick ‘n Save, Rainbow, Copps, Metro Mart & Mariano’s Fresh Market.  Forbes recently named it a top dividend stock (here), but I couldn’t disagree more.  First of all, $10,000 does not represent big insider buying by a Director.  But that’s not the big issue.  Many investors look at Roundy’s 6.5% dividend and see opportunity.  I see a disaster waiting to happen. Roundy’s has been a nasty investment since its IPO back in February 2012.  Including dividends, the stock is [...]

I like high-dividend stocks as much as any.  When you can take high dividends and combine it with some solid growth, then I’m all over it.  Who isn’t?!? And therein lies the problem.  When a high-dividend stock sets sail and grabs a growth wind, rarely do you get an opportunity to catch it on a break.  It keeps sailing higher. Two stocks that fit that description lately are Mattel (MAT) and Hasbro (HAS).  Both have been on a roll for a while now.  Mattel is up 23% and Hasbro is up [...]