Out Fox The $treet

The New Dogs of the Dow had a solid Q1 gain that surpassed the benchmark Dow. The average stock in the Net Payout Yields based list had a yield of 9.2% to start Q2. Due to a large buyback, United Technologies overtook the lead with the highest yield at 13.1%. This article will focus on the quarterly returns and changes in the new "Dogs of the Dow" strategy originally introduced (see  The New Dogs Of The Dow - 2015 ) last January. The goal of the series is to highlight that the old theory of buying the Dow stocks with the highest dividend yields is outdated. The more modern version involves using the Net Payout Yield (NPY) that adds the net stock buyback yield to the dividend yield. This yield more accurately reflects the modern corporate structure that utilizes a large amount of stock buybacks. Read the full article on Seeking Alpha.  Disclosure: Long AAPL, CAT, IBM, TRV. Please read the disclaimer page for more details.

SodaStream ( NASDAQ: SODA     ) continues to offer the promise of providing a home beverage maker solution for the U.S. market, yet the company struggled through a difficult couple of quarters that has the stock at multi-year lows. After decades of solid growth in Europe and continuing success in the first quarter, the Americas were suppose to offer unlimited growth with the ability of the home beverage maker to take market share from Cola-Cola 's   ( NYSE: KO     ) and PepsiCo 's vast soda operations. The recent seasonal summer display by retail giant Wal-Mart Stores ( NYSE: WMT     ) offers some hope for reinvigorated growth in the very important U.S. market. For various reasons including an inventory overstock and a brutal winter that greatly damaged the whole retail sector, revenue for the Americas  plunged 28% to a meager $34.8 million for the quarter. For investors following SodaStream this news was right in line wi...

Oddly, Green Dot ( NYSE: GDOT     ) spent the last year trying to counteract large competition from American Express ( NYSE: AMX     ) at top customer Wal-Mart Stores  ( NYSE: WMT     )  only to end up more entangled with the top retailer. While the largest provider of prepaid debit cards has successfully survived the onslaught of new prepaid competitors, Green Dot hasn't progressed at all in de-linking itself from Wal-Mart. Read the full article here . Disclosure: No positions mentioned. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

Editors Choice Green Dot Corp.  (NYSE: GDOT ) , a leading independent prepaid card provider for the underbanked, announced yesterday the launch of the first mobile-focused bank. Will this turn around the prospects of a stock that has been crushed over the last year as fears of new entrants into the prepaid card sector have hurt expectations? GoBank is designed to be the first bank account focused on being used on a mobile device more » Disclosure: No positions mentioned. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

Before the market opened on Monday, American Express Company (AXP) announced the official rollout of the Bluebird card with Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (WMT) . The Green Dot Corporation (GDOT) stock collapsed nearly 20% over the next two trading days to move back to all time lows. The company obtains 62% of revenues from a deal with Wal-Mart, so the market sees this as a potential major blow. The company provides widely distributed, low cost banking and payment solutions to a broad base of U.S. consumers. Green Dot's products and services include its market leading category of General Purpose Reloadable (GPR) prepaid cards and its industry-leading cash transfer network which are available directly to consumers online and through a network of approximately 60,000 retail stores nationwide where 95% of Americans shop. While this deal could be a threat to the revenue stream, one has to question whether American Express is the answer for the unbanked. What is the catch? How could a company ...

Prior to the open on Wednesday, SodaStream (SODA) posted earnings that handily beat analyst estimates and initially sent the stock soaring nearly 10% in pre market trading. Revenues soared 49% year-over-year and net income soared 43% from last year. The company is a leading manufacturer of home beverage carbonation systems. Even though the company also raised guidance, the stock ended the trading day in negative territory. Read the full article at Seeking Alpha. Disclosure: Long SODA. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

After reporting earnings last Thursday night, Green Dot (GDOT) plunged over 60% during trading on Friday. So did the company just die? The company provides widely distributed, low cost banking and payment solutions to a broad base of U.S. consumers. Green Dot's products and services include its market leading category of General Purpose Reloadable (GPR/) prepaid cards and its industry-leading cash transfer network which are available directly to consumers online and through a network of approximately 60,000 retail stores nationwide where 95% of Americans shop. For the most part, the company provides the prepaid cards available at Wal-Mart (WMT) . This program accounted for 62% of revenue during Q2. The biggest fear is that Green Dot will no longer dominate the market as larger players in the banking industry enter the sector in mass. Read the full article at Seeking Alpha. Disclosure: No positions mentioned. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

After recently  writing  about how some of the new media companies had failed to embrace new business models, along came my initial introduction to shopkick. Last week, shopkick  announced  that it has signed up  Target ( TGT )  as the largest retailer to use the service. My issue with some of the new media companies is that the revenue source remains very old media since a large salesforce is needed to attract advertiser dollars. Shopkick is an interesting app for the iPhone and Android phones that makes shopping more delightful. Users are rewarded with points known as "kicks" for walking into stores or scanning products. These kicks can be redeemed for gift cards,  Facebook ( FB )  credits, iTunes downloads, or donated to charity. Guests can also receive special in-store deals including coupons and discounts. Brand Awareness After trying the app at the local Target store, it struck me that no better advertising tool existed for brand pro...

This shouldn't be a shock to anybody following this blog and our articles published on Seeking Alpha. Not only has SodaStream (SODA) consistently beaten earnings estimates, but the market had priced the stock for a absolute collapse. Even with the stock up 26% today, it trades at absurdly low multiples. The company could easily earn $3 in 2013 yet the stock only trades at $36 now with 30% growth. This is a recipe for strong stock gains. It was also the first quarter with the report in US Dollars (USD). To most investors, this didn't make a difference but at the edge alot of investors didn't realize that main finance websites reported numbers in Euros. Just something that adds a tailwind to the stock price at this point. Couple of very interesting points from the conference call. First, Western Europe had 50% growth or 38% excluding a one-time benefit. Considering it is the largest and most established market, most of the shorts probably counted on the ongoing European...