Happy Halloween Stocks

by Fred Fuld III

It’s Halloween today, a boon for the candy manufacturers. The companies that produce horror movie also benefit. It’s hard to believe it’s that time of year. Pretty soon it will be Thanksgiving.

The biggest beneficiaries of the Halloween season are the candy makers.

Hershey Foods (HSY), one of the biggest chocolate and candy companies in the world, with two of its most popular products being Hershey Kisses and Hershey Bars, along with Reese’s. The stock has a trailing price to earnings ratio of 33.5, a forward P/E ratio of 27, and pays a dividend yield of 1.7%. Next year’s annual earnings per share are anticipated to be up 8.36%.

Tootsie Roll Industries (TR) has an assortment of candy kids, such as Tootsie Rolls, Tootsie Roll Pops, Caramel Apple Pops, Charms, Blow-Pops, Blue Razz, Zip-A-Dee Pops, Cella’s, Mason Dots, Mason Crows, Junior Mint, Sugar Daddys, and Sugar Babies. The stock has a P/E of 40.5 and pays a yield of 0.89%. Earnings per share this year were up 12.5%.

Mondelez International (MDLZ) is a multinational producer of candy, along with food and beverages. Its brands include Sour Patch, Swedish Fish, Cadbury, and Toblerone. The trailing P/E is 22 and the forward P/E is 20. The yield is a tasty 2.5%.

Watching scary movies is another popular event on Halloween. Netflix (NFLX), the huge provider of videos in the US, has an extensive selection of scary movies in its collection of titles. The stock trades as 27.9 times trailing earnings and 28.1 times forward earnings. It does not pay a dividend.

A major producer of scary movies is Lions Gate Entertainment (LGF-A), which has made such films as American Psycho, Ginger Snaps, Route 666, The Devil’s Rejects, House of the Dead 2, Saw VI, See No Evil, Hostel: Part II, My Bloody Valentine 3D and many others. Lionsgate currently has generated negative earnings but has a forward price to earnings ratio of 227.

Then of course, Amazon (AMZN) has plenty of Halloween costumes. Amazon has a trailing PE of 93 and a forward PE of 56.

Hopefully, your Halloween portfolio will bring you treats.

Disclosure: Author didn’t own any of the above at the time the article was written.

“How to Delete Twitter” searches up 1011% since Musk announcement

Online searches for “How to Delete Twitter” up 1011% in past 24 hours
“Delete Twitter” searches up 560%
“Twitter Alternatives” searches up 300%
“Mastodon” one of Twitters main competitors, has seen searches jump 455.5%
However, “How to Sign up to Twitter” searches are up 147.3%
“Twitter Sign Up” also up 50%, but is sharply increasing in past few hours

Data in full below, hope this is of use to you! Any questions feel free to get in touch.

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“How to Delete Twitter” searches up 1011% since Elon Musk takeover announcement

Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover is now complete, but what does it mean for the social media giant?

The 51 year old business magnate has promised to ring the changes, but it seems Twitters current user base isn’t happy.

Searches for “How to Delete Twitter” have increased 1011% in the past 24 hours, while searches for “Delete Twitter” have also jumped 560%

Could this be an opportunity for some competitors to gain an advantage? The Data certainly suggests so, with searches for “Twitter Alternatives” up 300%.

Searches for micro-blogging service “Mastodon”, which has a distinctly Twitter-like feel, have jumped 455.5% also

It’s not a complete exodus however, since Musk closed the deal searches for “How to Sign up to Twitter” have increased 147.3%. There has been a small spike in searches for “Twitter Sign Up” also, with a 50% boost, however data shows a sharp increase in searches in the past 2 hours alone, so watch this space.

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**Data gathered over the past 24 hours, up to 9am GMT**

For more information please contact JJ@Digitalfunnel.ie

Release compiled by Digital Funnel on behalf of Wisetek

Are You Looking for a Squeeze? Top Short Squeeze Stocks

by Fred Fuld III

Since the beginning of this year, the S&P 500 has dropped by over 20%. Many stocks are approaching bargain levels and some of them are heavily shorted, creating possible short squeeze opportunities.

Why should you care?

What happens when stocks get squeezed?

On August 22, 2022, I posted an article about meme related short squeeze stocks, and pointed out how Bed Bath and Beyond (BBBY) spiked by more than 43% in exactly one week after the article was posted.

Another stock that was described was Intercept Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ICPT), which increased by almost 5% in just two days.

The stock with the biggest short ratio (days to cover), at 14.3, was Heron Therapeutics, Inc. (HRTX). It rose by 9.5% in three days.

So what are the latest short squeeze candidates? Keep reading.

What Does Shorting Stocks Mean?

When you short a stock, it means that your goal is to make money from a drop in the price of a stock. Technically, what happens is that you borrow shares of a stock, sell those shares, then buy back those shares at a hopefully lower price so that those shares can be returned. This all happens electronically, so you don’t actually see all the borrowing and returning of shares; it just shows up on your screen as a negative number of shares.

What is a Short Squeeze?

Short sellers can be profitable, but sometimes when the stock moves against them, and begins to rise, the short sellers jump in right away to buy shares to cover their positions, creating what is called a short squeeze. When a short squeeze takes place, it can cause the share prices to increase fast and furiously. Any good news can trigger the short squeeze.

Some traders utilize this situation by looking for stocks to buy that may have a potential short squeeze. Here is what a short squeeze trader should take into consideration:

Short Percentage of Float ~ The float is the number of freely tradable shares and the short percentage is the number of shares held short divided by the float. Amounts over 10% to 20% are considered high and potential short squeeze plays.

Short Ratio / Days to Cover / Short Interest Ratio -This is probably the most important metric when looking for short squeeze trades, no matter what you call it. This is the number of days it would take the short sellers to cover their position based on the average daily volume of shares traded. This is a significant ratio as it shows how “stuck” the short sellers are when they want to buy in their shares without driving up the price too much. Unfortunately for the shortsellers, the longer the number of days to cover, the bigger and longer the squeeze.

Short Percentage Increase ~ This is the percentage increase in in the number of short sellers from the previous month.

The following are some heavily shorted tech stock that may be worth considering.

Company	Symbol	Short % of Float	Short % Change	Short Interest Ratio
EVgo, Inc.	EVGO	31%	-1%	8.4
Rocket Companies, Inc.	RKT	33%	7%	10.3
Revolve Group, Inc.	RVLV	31%	0%	7.8
Switch, Inc.	SWCH	31%	16%	9.1
Upstart Holdings, Inc.	UPST	38%	0%	3.4

The second stock on the list, Rocket (RKT), which has a price to earnings ratio of 4.16, has 33% of its float shorted, an increase of 7% over last month, a daily substantial amount.

The short interest ratio is 10.3, which means that it would take the short sellers more that ten days to cover their position, based on recent average volume.

Just keep in mind that just because a stock has good earnings ratios and is heavily shorted, doesn’t mean that the stock will go up, especially in a bear market. Also, stocks that are significantly shorted may be shorted for a reason.

Disclosure: Author didn’t own any of the above at the time the article was written.

Stocks Going Ex Dividend in November 2022

The following is a short list of some of the many stocks going ex dividend during the next month.

Many traders and investors use the stock trading technique called ‘Buying Dividends,’ also commonly referred to as ‘Dividend Capture.’ This is the strategy of buying stocks before the ex dividend date and selling the stock shortly after the ex date at about the same price, yet still being entitled to the dividend.

This technique generally works in bull markets and flat or choppy markets, but during bear markets, you may want to consider avoiding this strategy. In order to be entitled to the dividend, you have to buy the stock before the ex-dividend date, and you can’t sell the stock until on or after the ex date.

The actual dividend may not be paid for another few weeks. WallStreetNewsNetwork.com has compiled a downloadable list of the stocks going ex dividend in the near future. The list contains many dividend paying companies, lots with market caps over $500 million. Some of the stocks have yields over 2%. Here are a few examples showing the stock symbol, the ex-dividend date, the periodic dividend amount, and the annual yield.

Pfizer, Inc. (PFE)	11/3/2022	0.40	3.56%
Intel Corporation (INTC)	11/4/2022	0.365	5.41%
Starbucks Corporation (SBUX)	11/9/2022	0.53	2.39%
Target Corporation (TGT)	11/15/2022	1.08	2.71%
Southern Company (SO)	11/18/2022	0.68	4.22%
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)	11/21/2022	1.13	2.68%
Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (GS)	11/30/2022	2.50	3.08%

The entire list of over 100 ex-dividend stocks will be emailed to all subscribers next week. If you are not a subscriber, you can sign up at the signup box below. Don’t miss out. Remember, it’s free!

Dividend Definitions

Declaration date: the day that the company declares that there is going to be an upcoming dividend.

Ex-dividend date: the day on which if you buy the stock, you would not be entitled to that particular dividend; or the first day on which a shareholder can sell the shares and still be entitled to the dividend.

Record date: the day when you must be on the company’s books as a shareholder to receive the dividend. The ex-dividend date is normally set for stocks at two business days before the record date.

Payment date: the day on which the dividend payment is actually made, which can be as long at two months after the ex date.

Don’t forget to reconfirm the ex-dividend date with the company before implementing this technique.

Disclosure: Author did not own any of the above at the time the article was written; affiliate links are on this page.

Cell Tower Stocks Can Provide Income and Stability

by Fred Fuld III

Without cell towers, your cellular phone would be worthless. It would be like cars without roads, ships without water.

Cell towers, also known as cellular base stations, media towers, or cell sites, are a critical factor in communication.

So the owners of cell towers have a significant and very important set of assets.

There are actually several different stocks that generate revenues from their portfolio of cell towers, most of which are structured as real estate investment trusts or REITs.

A REIT is structured as a trust which is required to distribute at least 90% of its income in order to avoid double taxation. Taxes would be avoided at the corporate level. The REIT invests in some type of real estate or diversified types of real estate.

These cell tower stocks have suffered over the last year, possibly getting close to buying opportunities.

American Tower (AMT) is the largest cell tower owner with approximately 43,000 towers, according to WirelessEstimator. It is structured as a REIT, with a trailing price to earnings ratio of 30.9 and a forward P/E ratio of 39.45. Earnings per share this year jumped by 49.5%. The stock pays a decent yield of 3.13%.

Revenues for the latest quarter have increased by 16.3% year over year, and quarterly earnings per share have grown by over 18% year over year. American Tower has dropped from about 295 at the beginning of the year to 185 now. It may be approaching a reasonable purchase price.

Crown Castle International (CCI) is another large player in the cellular tower industry. This REIT owns about 41,000 towers. The trailing P/E is 35.6 and the forward P/E is 32.53. Earnings grew by 13.50% this year, and the stock has a yield of 4.64%.

Another company in the tower arena is SBA Communications (SBAC), a REIT with roughly 17,000 towers. The P/E is fairly high at 77, and the forward PE is also on the high side at 54. Even though the yield is low at 1.15%, the earnings skyrockets this year by 906%.

Uniti Group (UNIT) is one of the smaller REITs with less than 1000 towers. The PE is 10 and the forward PE is 9. Earnings were up 113% this year, and the company provides a very high yield of 8.50%.

United States Cellular (USM) is the only company on this list that is not a REIT. The stock has 4,400 towers, a PE of 19 and a forward PE of 22. Unfortunately, earnings this year were down by 13.90%. It does not pay a dividend.

There are a couple ETFs with are participating in the cell tower industry, Pacer Benchmark Data & Infrastructure RE (SRVR) with a yield of 1.72%, and the Defiance 5G Next Gen Connectivity ETF (FIVG) yielding 2.38%.

Watch the price action of these stocks. Maybe if they drop to a bit more reasonable price, they may be calling you as a buy.

Disclosure: Author didn’t own any of the above at the time the article was written.

Elon Musk Going Ahead with Buying Twitter: Stock Spikes

Do you remember back in April when Elon Musk, the head of Tesla (TSLA) said that he was buying Twitter (TWTR) at $54.20 per share?

by Fred Fuld III

Do you remember back in April when Elon Musk, the head of Tesla (TSLA) said that he was buying Twitter (TWTR) at $54.20 per share?

However, Musk attempted to back out of the agreement, primarily giving a reason of too many fake Twitter accounts.

But Twitter sued Musk in court for performance, requesting that he go through with the deal.

According to sources, Musk has decided to move forward with the takeover of Twitter.

This happened just shortly before a deposition was taken of Musk by Twitter lawyers.

The news caused Twitter to spike in price today, closing at $52 per share, up $9.14 or 22.24%. In after-market trading, the stock dropped a little from its close, falling 70 cents.

This transaction will cost Elon Musk $44 billion.

Disclosure: Author did not own any of the above at the time the article was written.