On March 4, Mario Gabelli (Trades, Portfolio), the chairman and chief executive officer of GAMCO Investors Inc. added Griffon Corporation (GFF) at an average price of $12.61 and currently holds 6,752,733 shares of the stock, worth 0.01% of his portfolio.
So let's take a look at this company and try to explain to investors the reasons this is an apparently appealing investment opportunity in the building products industry, which is a cyclical one and driven by the overall health of the U.S. economy.
Positive Outlook
The company is a diversified manufacturer of building products, electronic information and communication systems, and specialty plastic films. It has three segments: Home and Building Products; which manufactures and markets residential, commercial and industrial garage doors through Clopay Building Products, and provides non-powered landscaping products through Ames True Temper Inc.
Top Warren Buffett Stocks To Buy Right Now: Gulf Resources Inc (GURE)
Gulf Resources, Inc. (Gulf Resources), incorporated on February 28, 1989, is engaged in manufacturing and trading of bromine and crude salt, and manufacturing and selling of chemical products used in oil and gas field exploration, oil and gas distribution, oil field drilling, wastewater processing, papermaking chemical agents and inorganic chemicals. As of December 31, 2011, its products have been sold only within the People�� Republic of China. The Company operates in three segments: bromine, crude salt and chemical products. It manufactures and trades bromine and crude salt through Shouguang City Haoyuan Chemical Company Limited (SCHC), and manufactures chemical products for use in the oil industry and paper manufacturing industry through Shouguang Yuxin Chemical Industry Co., Limited (SYCI). On December 22, 2011, the Company acquired substantially all of the assets owned by Liangcai Zhang in the Shouguang City Yangkou Township Area.
Bromine and Crude Salt
The Company manufactures and distributes bromine through its wholly owned subsidiary, SCHC. Bromine (Br2) is a halogen element and it is a red volatile liquid at standard room temperature, which has reactivity between chlorine and iodine. Elemental bromine is used to manufacture a variety of bromine compounds used in industry and agriculture. Bromine is also used to form intermediates in organic synthesis. Its bromine is used in brominated flame retardants, fumigants, water purification compounds, dyes, medicines and disinfectants. Its production sites are located in the Shandong Province in northeastern China. Its production feeds include natural brine, vitriol, chlorine, sulfur and coal.
Crude Salt
The Company also produces crude salt, which is produced from the evaporation of the wastewater after its bromine production process. Once the brine is returned to the surface and the bromine is removed, the remaining brine is pumped to onsite containing pools and then exposed to natural sunshine. T! his causes the water to evaporate from the brine, resulting in salt being left over afterwards. Crude salt is the principal material in alkali production, as well as chlorine alkali production and is used in the chemical, food and beverage, and other industries.
Chemical Products
The Company produces chemical products through its wholly owned subsidiary, SYCI. The products it produces include hydroxyl guar gum, demulsified agent, corrosion inhibitor for acidizing, bactericide, chelant, iron ion stabilizer, clay stabilizing agent, flocculants agent, remaining agent, expanding agent, bromopropane, environmental friendly additive products, solid lubricant and polyether lubricant.
Gulf Resources competes with Shandong Yuyuan Group Company Limited, Shandong Haihua Group Company Limited, Shandong Dadi Salt Chemical Group Company Limited, Shandong Haiwang Chemical Company Limited, Shandong Weifang Longwei Industrial Company Limited, Shandong Caiyangzi Saltworks, Beijing Tianqing Chemical Company Limited, Shandong Weifang Shuangxing Pesticides Company Limited, Zibo Dacheng Pesticides Company Limited, Befar Group Company Limited, China Eastar (Group) Chemical Industry Company Limited and Pecome Technologies Limited.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Paul Ausick]
Big Earnings Movers: Gogo Inc. (NASDAQ: GOGO) is up 28.3% at $24.05. Gulf Resources Inc. (NASDAQ: GURE) is up 15.8% at $2.46.
Stocks on the Move: ViroPharma Inc. (NASDAQ: VPHM) is up 25.4% at $49.38 on a $4.2 billion buyout offer from London-listed Shire. Zalicus Inc. (NASDAQ: ZLCS) is down 72.3% at $1.30 on a failed drug trial.
Top 5 Building Product Companies To Watch In Right Now: S&W Seed Company(SANW)
S&W Seed Company engages in contracting the production of alfalfa seed varieties, processing the seeds, and marketing the certified seed to agribusiness firms and farmers worldwide. It also involves in the production of stevia leaf. The company primarily offers high fall dormancy (FD) alfalfa seed varieties, as well as markets and sells other varieties, including FD 7, 6, and 4 varieties. It sells the seed primarily to dealers and distributors who, in turn, sell primarily to hay and dairy farmers who grow hay for dairy cattle and other livestock; and through brokers. The company was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in Five Points, California.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Glenwoods]
�PureCircle does not grow its own product, but is more of a holding company as it contracts farms scattered around the globe to grow stevia to certain specifications.� One such farm is the S&W SEED Co. (NASDAQ:SANW).� Toward the end of 2011, PureCircle, with a goal of developing stevia in the U.S. for the U.S market, entered into a five-year agreementwith the California-based grower of high-yield alfalfa seeds, to grow stevia to the company�� specifications.� Unfortunately the results have not matched expectationsas reported by S&W Seed:
Top 5 Building Product Companies To Watch In Right Now: Aviva PLC (AVV)
Aviva plc (Aviva) is an insurance group engaged in provision of products and services, such as long-term insurance and savings, fund management and general insurance. Aviva provides long-term insurance and savings, general and health insurance, and fund management products and services. Its business is managed on four geographic regions: United Kingdom, Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. The four regions, together with Aviva Investors, function as six operating segments. The UK region is split into the UK Life and UK General Insurance segments, which undertake long-term insurance and savings business and general insurance, respectively. In April 2013, it transferred its holding in Spanish joint venture Aseval to Bankia. In October 2013, Aviva sold Aviva USA Corporation to Athene Holding Ltd. Effective December 12, 2013, Redefine International Plc, a unit of Redefine Properties Ltd, acquired Weston Favell Shopping Centre from Aviva Commercial Finance Ltd, a unit of Aviva plc. Advisors' Opinion:- [By Namitha Jagadeesh]
Kabel Deutschland Holding AG rose to a record after getting an offer from Liberty Global Plc. Aveva Group Plc (AVV) jumped 5.4 percent as Citigroup Inc. upgraded the shares. Danske Bank A/S (DANSKE) dropped 6.1 percent after Denmark�� financial regulator ordered it to increase its risk-weighted assets. Royal Imtech NV fell to the lowest price since 2004 after posting a first-quarter loss on costs relating to a fraud investigation.
Top 5 Building Product Companies To Watch In Right Now: Vmware Inc.(VMW)
VMware, Inc. provides virtualization and virtualization-based cloud infrastructure solutions in the United States and internationally. The company?s products address planned and unplanned downtime management, system recoverability and reliability, backup and recovery, resource provisioning and management, capacity and performance management, and security issues. Its cloud infrastructure products and technologies include VMware vSphere, which is a data center platform that also enables live migration of actively running virtual machines across servers or storage locations without disruption or downtime; enables availability for all applications against hardware and operating system failures; and enables centralized point of control for cluster-level networking, as well as automatically manages the placement and balancing of a virtual machine across storage resources. The company also offers cloud application platform solutions that help organizations build, run, and manage enterprise applications in public, private, or hybrid clouds optimized for vSphere. In addition, it provides end-user computing solutions, which provide secure access to applications and data from various devices and location, as well as serves the corporate IT departments through managing and connecting end-user assets delivering them as a managed service. The company?s end-user computing solutions also provide the ability to manage software as a service, Windows, Mobile, or enterprise applications, as well as enhance communication and collaboration between end users. Further, it provides a range of professional services, such as consulting, education, and technical account manager services, as well as customer support services. The company sells its products through distributors, resellers, system vendors, and systems integrators. VMware, Inc. was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in Palo Alto, California. VMware, Inc. operates as a subsidiary of EMC Corporation.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Rex Crum]
VMware Inc. (VMW) , which was set to report quarterly results after the close of trading Tuesday, rose 31 cents a share to close at $105.15.
- [By DAILYFINANCE]
Brian Smale/Microsoft via Getty ImagesNewly named Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. SAN FRANCISCO -- After compiling a list of more than 100 CEO candidates, Microsoft settled on Satya Nadella a homegrown leader who joined the software maker in the early 1990s. That's back when Google's founders were teenagers and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was in elementary school. Tuesday's hiring of Nadella as Microsoft's CEO after a five-month search is a safe move that's likely to be greeted with sighs of relief around the company's Redmond, Wash., headquarters, industry analysts say. But the methodical, almost predictable decision is likely to reinforce perceptions that Microsoft (MSFT) is a plodding company reluctant to take risks as it competes against younger rivals who relish going out on a limb. While Google (GOOG) founder and CEO Larry Page boasts about his company taking "moon shots" and Zuckerberg promises to "move fast and break things," Microsoft has fallen behind the technological curve after underestimating the importance of Internet search more than a decade ago and reacting too slowly to the rise of mobile devices during the past seven years. Meanwhile, the sales of personal computers running on Microsoft's Windows software are shrinking. Microsoft's malaise may have narrowed the field of up-and-coming visionaries interested in running a company founded in 1975. Just as Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Apple (AAPL) founder Steve Jobs would never have considered working at IBM (IBM) in the 1980s, today's entrepreneurial whiz kids scoff at Microsoft's overtures. "Going to work at Microsoft could make it look like you are going back to the dark ages," says Richard Metheny, a management coach for the executive search firm Witt/Kieffer in Chicago. "It's a well-entrenched business that has had trouble lately figuring out how to play in this new world." Despite its challenges, Microsoft remains a moneymaking machine that sits atop an $84 billion cash pile. Tha
- [By Paul Ausick]
Big Earnings Movers: Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) is down 9% at $322.99 after a stellar report and some cautionary comments from the CEO. VMware Inc. (NYSE: VMW) is up 2.9% at $85.01 after a very positive report. Delta Air Lines Inc. (NYSE: DAL) is up 3.3% at $25.51 after a solid quarter. Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (NYSE: FCX) is up 3.7% at $36.35 on an earnings boost from its recent oil and gas acquisitions. RadioShack Corp. (NYSE: RSH) is down 17.9% at $2.89 after a reporting dismal results.
- [By Traders Reserve]
EMC (EMC) will be in the running. In late 2012, the $50 billion company formed a separate organization called Pivotal Initiative, headed up by VMware�� (VMW) former CEO Paul Maritz. It combines VMware�� data center software and EMC�� big data technology. It is expected to bring in revenue of about $300 million in 2013. Revenue is projected to grow to over $1 billion by 2017. EMC actually owns 33% of VMware.
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