Suggested Investment Strategy

We have a buy rating for Dunkin Brands (DNKN). The company has declared a quarterly dividend payout of $0.19 per share for this quarter to be paid on February 20th 2012. This dividend yield of 2.08% is 27% higher than DNKN's previous dividend yield, in line with Globenum's average dividend yield of 2.15% and also in line with competitor's average dividend yield of 2.1%. Moreover, DNKN's free cash flow of $47.6 million for this quarter is quite enough for paying this $20 million dividend and financing next quarter CAPEX of $3.6 million.

The company seems to be following a very effective expense control strategy as its expenses in Q32011 were 22% lower than its expenses in Q32011. We feel that this will improve the company's liquidity in the future and money would be available for financing more productive activities. Moreover, the company's reported comp store

Suggested Investment Strategy

We rate the shares of Microsoft (MSFT) as buy. Last year, analysts pointed towards a nightmare scenario for MSFT. Pessimism regarding preference of Windows over other operating systems started mounting as a big portion of MSFT's customers seemed to have been snatched by its key competitor Apple Inc. (AAPL). The nightmare has now come into action as MSFT's Windows 8 and has not been able to sell as guided by the company.

While MSFT tried hard to respond to competitors by introducing the tile based Windows 8, news from different parts of the world has failed to generate optimistic signals about the company. The new Windows has not attracted as much demand as was expected in Asian markets. Same is the case with other markets where this new product by MSFT has been reported as an initial flop. The stock was down

Target Corp (TGT) recently reported a decrease in November 2012 revenues by 2% compared to the same month of prior year. As analysts were expecting a boost in sales for the holiday season, this drop brought disappointment. November holidays and Christmas crowds bring an upsurge in sales of retail stores in the fourth quarter every year. Success of retail giants is highly dependent on store traffic in the last two months of each year. But TGT was not lucky enough to enjoy the boost in 2012 as much as it did in 2011. This decrease can mainly be attributed to the decline in customer purchasing power which Sandy brought to the country. This effect coupled with macroeconomic issues seems to have affected the real purchasing power of people in US.

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However, despite the drop in sales of November 2012, we are bullish about TGT and

We suggest avoiding McDonald's (MCD) as we are dissatisfied with the current performance of the company. We were quite amazed to see how some analysts favored MCD because of the boost in November sales. However, based on our analysis, we suggest a very different stance as that boost seems temporary. We suggest avoiding MCD because of the following reasons.

Reasons:

1: The operational performance of MCD has disappointed us as it missed analyst estimates on several dimensions. Revenues for MCD has shown a decline by 20% in Q32012 compared to Q32011. Similarly, the company reported a decrease in net income by 3.45% compared to Q32011. MCD has shown a steady decrease in overall profitability margins in 2012 compared to 2011. These facts can be observed in the following graphs.

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Source: Globenum Research

2: Experts use same store sales

Over the time, investment banks have turned out to be entities with moderate risk and return for investors. This article is an attempt to compare two investment banks which have been in headlines for past few months. By comparing the strategic, operational and financial performance of both the banks, we will aim at suggesting and providing insights for potential investors.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM)

JPM has been providing financial services in over 100 countries for more than 200 years. The core principle of the company is "taking care of the investor's interests." From an operational perspective:

1. While experts are skeptical about the expense control measures adopted by the management of most of the investment banks, JPM's management seems to have improved its control over operations. Although JPM has reported a revenue decline by 13% in Q3 2012, tight expense control measures have saved net profitability from

Although several electronic gadget companies have introduced interesting variants in the industry, people who are loyal to Apple (AAPL) products seldom think of switching. Experts believe that this is mainly because of the prestige attached to this brand. AAPL seems well aware of its prestigious position and this is one reason why its marketing mix is aimed at enhancing this prestige.

Apple has the same pricing philosophy as Louis Vuitton. It sells premium products at premium prices and never discounts. That philosophy has made it an aspirational brand worldwide. You don't see vendors in China selling fake Google Nexus 7s. Apple products are so much more expensive than the competition that only the rich and faithful tend to buy them. But that uncompromising devotion to the fundamental philosophy is what has made Apple such a powerful global brand.

This analysis by Felix Salmon clearly indicates that the success

Boeing (BA), the American titan, has been ruling the aerospace industry since 1916. With its strong focus on diversification, BA has been a source of consistent earnings for investors. Although the operational and financial performance of BA does not currently seem extraordinary, its future horizons make us bullish about the stock.

If analyzed from an operational perspective, cost seems to be the major reason behind lower profitability of BA relative to competitors. If compared to Q32011, its revenue in Q32012 has seen an increase of 13%. However, its gross margin has shrunk by 5% mainly because of cost issues. Although high cost figures are prevalent in the entire industry, the cost figure for BA is higher than most of its competitors. The following graphs illustrate the profitability and cost effectiveness of BA relative to competitors.

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The strategic performance of BA is quite

It is often said that every rise has to see a fall at some point in time. This postulate seems to be valid for two titans of the past i.e. J.C. Penney (JCP) and Best Buy (BBY). A hit of 50% to the stock values of both BBY and JCP this year has made the Street forget about successes of both companies in the past. The key reason behind this drop in value seems the existence of operational, financial and strategic issues. We suggest staying away from both JCP and BBY until breakouts in their strategies start appearing.

JCP

JCP, the 110 years old department store chain, is now fighting for its revival. After a 25% drop in sales in previous quarter, Mr. Johnson, the new CEO introduced the new concept of "store within store." An overview of JCP's operational performance shows despite implementation of

Technical problems seem to be increasing for the world's leading automaker Toyota Motors (TM). Even after the nightmare of car problems in 2009, the company is still facing technical problems with "Corolla," "Prius" and other models. TM has decided to call back 2.77 million vehicles worldwide because of these problems. Moreover, the company is also witnessing mounting problems in China because of the territorial dispute in east China. However, we feel that these problems are not significant to make investors stand by a short position. We are optimistic about TM's strategic future and therefore have a buy rating for it.

The first reason behind our buy rating is TM's sound operational performance. A comparison to its performance in Q32011 reveals that the company has been able to increase its revenue by 16%. However, its cost control measures have not been as efficient as those of its competitors and

Ford (F) has seen a significant drop in revenue and gross margin in Q32012. Although the company has reported an EPS of $0.4 beating analyst consensus on $0.3, it has also reported continuing problems in the European markets. To solve its issues in Europe, F has relied on cost reduction by closing facilities in Southampton. While we don't consider this step a long term solution to F's strategic issues in Europe, we are optimistic about its performance in America. This mainly is because of the rise in SAAR in US. While consensus points toward SAAR of 14.5, the current level is 15.5 indicating a bullish trend in the US auto market. Moreover, we also feel that F is strategically suited to deserve a buy rating.

The primary reason behind our bullish orientation is F's fair operational performance. The net profitability has increased by 56% if compared