By Brian Bolan

The economy seems to be getting stronger and stronger. Unemployment is on its way down. The stock market (S&P 500) is making all-time highs, so is it time to take a gamble?

I'm not talking about any gamble, I want a calculated gamble. One that will pay off because times are getting better and that means there is likely to be more disposable cash on hand. Where do people go (and lose or) spend disposable cash? VEGAS!

Let's take a look at three stocks that have high Zacks Ranks and could be worth a gamble.

MGM Resorts

MGM Resorts (MGM) has been on a nice run over the last month or so. The stock has jumped from about $12 and is now looking to test the $16 range and that move may be the start of even better things to come.

A big reason for the

Q2 2013 Earnings Call

April 25, 2013 5:00 pm ET

Executives

Kate Pearlman

Patti S. Hart - Chief Executive Officer and Director

John Vandemore - Chief Financial Officer, Principal Accounting Officer and Treasurer

Analysts

Steven M. Wieczynski - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc., Research Division

Shaun C. Kelley - BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division

Carlo Santarelli - Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division

Robin M. Farley - UBS Investment Bank, Research Division

Harry C. Curtis - Nomura Securities Co. Ltd., Research Division

Amir J. Markowitz - Morgan Stanley, Research Division

Barry Jonas - Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division

Justin T. Sebastiano - Brean Capital LLC, Research Division

Thomas Andrews

Presentation

Operator

Welcome to International Game Technology's Second Quarter Fiscal Year 2013 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] This call is being recorded. If anyone has any objections, you may disconnect at this time. I would now like

Top Stories
Cypriot crisis heading for endgame. Cypriot Finance Minister Michael Sarris has left talks with Russia about a possible rescue empty handed, with the latter saying they're not interested in Cyprus's offshore gas reserves. However, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has apparently said the door to a deal is not closed. Meanwhile, the EU has objected to a proposal to take over pension funds as part of a Troika bailout. The situation is fast-changing, but the ECB's Monday deadline remained the same at the time of writing.

German business confidence unexpectedly falls. Germany's closely watched Ifo Index of business confidence has unexpectedly dropped in March for the first time in five months, falling to 106.7 from 107.4 in February. The decline was due to the uncertain outcome of the Italian elections and partly because of the Cyprus crisis. However, Ifo economist Klaus Wohlrabe remains sanguine. "We shouldn't read

Abstract: Warren Buffett prefers to own large cap companies, but investors can employ the same kind of quantitative criteria that he uses to make his selections to companies of all sizes. In the mid cap world, doing so produces not only some intriguing technology stocks but also a series of other Buffett-esque businesses with a track record of outperforming the S&P 500.

Warren Buffett is at it again. In his March 1, 2013 annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) shareholders, Buffett and long-time partner Charlie Munger made it clear that they are on safari, hunting for elephants. Or rather, the corporate equivalent, probably companies with a market capitalization of $10 billion to $30 billion. But while the Sage of Omaha prefers to make larger corporations his targets, there is also an array of mid cap stocks that display the same characteristics that traditionally have appealed to Buffett. Just as we

by Anil Nain

Poker's hot streak over the past decade appears to be cooling, if recent reports from Las Vegas are to be believed. In the last two months, 8 poker rooms are said to have closed and replaced with slot machines. Since mid 2007, Poker revenues have increased only 5 of 43 months since 2007, and generally, the per-table win has diminished to early 1990's levels, according to UNLV's Center for Gaming Research. As context, Table-poker generated revenues of $123 million in 2012, a decrease over its peak of $168 million, contributing just 1.13% to Nevada's total gambling revenues of nearly $11 billion in 2012.

But while the fervor of table poker may be diminishing, don't cry for Vegas just yet. Despite a recent drop in revenue-- the Nevada Gaming Commission recently announced January numbers indicating a 12.4% drop in year over year revenue-- gaming tax collections are

March 07, 2013 1:30 pm ET

Executives

Patti S. Hart - Chief Executive Officer, Director and Member of Stock Award Committee

Matthew G. Moyer - Vice President of Investor Relations

Analysts

William J. Lerner - Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division

Joseph Greff - JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division

Presentation

William J. Lerner - Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division

All right. Well, good morning, everybody. Our next fireside chat involves IGT, with me is Patti Hart, President and Chief Executive Officer, as well as Matt Moyer, who quarterbacks investor relations. The format's going to be familiar to you all, we'll start with some questions from me, and then we'll open it up to, importantly, your questions.

Question-and-Answer Session

William J. Lerner - Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division

Patti, maybe we can just sort of start off by just going across the business lines. Maybe you

This article is the first in a two-part series focusing on the developing U.S. real-money online gambling market. This article will focus on the politics of this very fluid market and recommend a general investment approach. Part 2 will concentrate on which specific companies have an edge in the world of real-money online gambling.

Recently, America's most talked about Governor, Chris Christie, shot down a bill legalizing online gambling in the state of New Jersey. However, he acknowledged he would sign a bill "if it had a 10-year trial period and a higher tax rate on casinos." This acknowledgement has likely changed the landscape of real-money online gaming in America. The rejected bill, which will be amended, reintroduced, and most likely passed in March 2013, becomes a model for other states with large casino constituents. Make no mistake, this piece of legislation puts the future of New Jersey's

Q1 2013 Earnings Call

January 22, 2013 5:00 pm ET

Executives

Matthew G. Moyer - Vice President of Investor Relations

Patti S. Hart - Chief Executive Officer, Director and Member of Stock Award Committee

John Vandemore - Chief Financial Officer, Principal Accounting Officer and Treasurer

Analysts

Carlo Santarelli - Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division

Felicia R. Hendrix - Barclays Capital, Research Division

Shaun C. Kelley - BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division

Robin M. Farley - UBS Investment Bank, Research Division

Joseph Greff - JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division

Steven M. Wieczynski - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc., Research Division

Harry C. Curtis - Nomura Securities Co. Ltd., Research Division

Michael Goltsman - Citigroup Inc, Research Division

Presentation

Operator

Welcome to International Game Technology's First Quarter and Fiscal Year 2013 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] This call is being recorded. If anyone has any objections,

VIX - Market Sentiment:

Welcome back. I hope everyone had a safe and happy extended trading weekend. Tuesday S&P futures traded in a 9 handle move top to bottom, waving back and forth heading into the open. Trading down to a high of 1484, then weakening back towards the 1475, it appears the market is building yet another floor, trying to hold above the 1480 level. Futures took the turn downward after Johnson and Johnson (JNJ) reported a less than stellar quarter, missing analyst estimates. Additionally, weak numbers from existing home sales also put additional pressure on the market. Despite these weak initial numbers, the market continues to hold higher, awaiting this monster week of earnings releases. The NYMO continues to show relative strength in the market but again, has room to move higher, as the oscillator Friday closed at +42.12 a 5.66 point increase.

Both the spot

VIX - Market Sentiment:

Friday S&P futures were nothing short of a snoozer in early trading moving less than 5 handles top to bottom. Markets were weighed down in early trading held down by Intel (INTC) earnings and poor Consumer Sentiment numbers. The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment number was forecast to have a reading of 75.1 and instead came up very short with a reading of 71.3. Additionally the previous UoM CS number was revised down to 82.7 from the initial reading of 84.9. Yesterday the market showed remarkable strength but did fail to close above resistance of the 1485 level. A final look into the NYMO continues to show the market has burned off the recent pop as the oscillator Thursday closed at +36.46 a 19.38 point increase from the day before. The market has a huge lineup of earnings next week so this could be a

Do you like investing with a stock's momentum during earnings season? On ideas on how to start your search, we ran a search on companies in the S&P 500 index reporting earnings in January.

We then screened these names for those with bullish trends in shares shorted, with significant decreases in shares shorted month-over-month.

We highlighted this list because the S&P largely index is the most watched stock list on the market, so it is arguably the most voted on share price as far as trading volume goes. Short covering signals that a very significant pool of investors are optimistic about these names. We feel Main Street investors would be wise to add these stocks to their watchlist for continued upside.

Interactive Chart: Press Play to compare changes in analyst ratings over the last two years for the stocks mentioned below. Analyst ratings sourced from Zacks Investment Research.

Do you

By Jake Mann

Hedge funds obtain a substantial portion of their alpha from stocks in the small-cap space. Due to the fact that public research about these companies tends to be less efficient than their larger peers, this makes sense. According to our own analysis, investing in the most popular small-cap picks among hedge funds has generated an alpha of about 120 basis points per month (read more about our small-cap strategy).

At Insider Monkey, we started publishing a quarterly newsletter at the end of August, and since then (through December) this strategy returned 14.3% vs. 2.1% for the S&P 500 index (here's full access to our newsletter).

With that being said, we're going to take a look at the top five small-cap picks from Dmitry Balyasny's Balyasny Asset Management. Each stock has a market capitalization between $1 billion and $5 billion; this is the same

I spent part of my weekend doing my usual routine of looking at the latest list of top insider purchases in this week's Barron's while having the Red Zone going to keep tabs on my fantasy football team. Two companies with top insider buys caught my eye this week:

International Game Technology (IGT) is one of the leading manufacturers and marketers of electronic gaming equipment and systems worldwide. Its core focus is on the casino space.

Four reasons IGT is undervalued at under $14 a share:

1. A director purchased $500K of new shares in the second week of November. It was the first insider purchase in 2012.
2. Consensus earnings estimates for both FY2012 and FY2013 have risen nicely on IGT in the last month.
3. The stock sells at under 11x forward earnings, a discount to its five-year average (17.6).
4. IGT has a five-year projected PEG of exactly

When insiders add to their holdings, this can often be a very compelling reason for investors to keep their eyes on the corresponding company stock. Usually operating as directors, large owners, and officers with greater insight into the company than the typical individual investor, insiders often have a better sense of when to move their money to capture value. For this reason, I want to focus on a few cases of significant (although somewhat odd) insider purchases made over the last week.

A Case For A Speculative Buy

Lady Luck has strayed far away from American Superconductor Corporation (AMSC), a global provider of wind and power grid products and services. In 2011, the company fell victim to one of the worst cases of corporate sabotage in recent history, as it was undermined by former Chinese customer Sinovel. Since then, the company has struggled to stay afloat after being

As many income investors know, dividend investing can result in the guarantee of income, or in certain cases where the investor has a dividend reinvestment account, more shares. I personally prefer the latter, but that's just me. In the case of the three stocks featured, the dividend increases shouldn't be the only factors taken into account before establishing a position.

York Water Co. (YORW) announced a 3.5% or $0.0047/share increase on November 20, to its current dividend of $0.1336/share. It also announced the date of its regular dividend distribution, which is now set for January 15th to shareholders of record as of December 15th. As a result of the increase, the company now yields 3.2% ($1.52) on an annual basis, which is then broken down and distributed to shareholders each quarter.

When it comes to York Water the dividend hike isn't thing that potential investor should consider a positive catalyst.

VIX - Market Sentiment:

Tuesday S&P futures attempted to digest the large move higher in yesterday's trading session. Futures initially traded as high as 1387 before meeting resistance and being sold down back below the 1377 level. The markets were heavily weighed down early by negative news out of Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and Credit Suisse (CS). HPQ reported a massive 8.8B write-down, causing shares to dip more than 10%. Other poor earnings came from Urban Outfitters (URBN) and Agilent Technologies (A), sending both stocks lower. Overall, the market feels as if we are in limbo, as we are now between the 10 and 20 dma. Again, tech giant Apple (AAPL) confirmed this, as the market rose and fell with AAPL sentiment today. Confirmation the oversold continues to burn off is the NYMO, which yesterday had a reading of just -7.36 -- down from -92.71. The NYMO Oscillator can be seen

Q4 2012 Earnings Call

November 08, 2012 5:00 pm ET

Executives

Matthew G. Moyer - Vice President of Investor Relations

Patti S. Hart - Chief Executive Officer, Director and Member of Stock Award Committee

John Vandemore - Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer

Analysts

Carlo Santarelli - Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division

Robin M. Farley - UBS Investment Bank, Research Division

Shaun C. Kelley - BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division

Steven M. Wieczynski - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc., Research Division

Felicia R. Hendrix - Barclays Capital, Research Division

Joseph Greff - JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division

Clifford Kurz - Credit Agricole Securities (USA) Inc., Research Division

Presentation

Operator

Welcome to International Game Technology's Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2012 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] This call is being recorded. If anyone has any objections, you may disconnect at this time. I would now like

WMS Industries (WMS) is perhaps best known to a large segment of the population as the manufacturer of cutting-edge arcade games in the 1970s and 1980s. The newest incarnation of the company is as the manufacturer of various slot style gambling machines used in Nevada, New Jersey, and on Indian Reservations. Gambling is perhaps the ultimate discretionary activity, and thus has a cyclical element in tune with economic conditions.

WMS reported a generally negative tenor on its recent first fiscal quarterly report. The company ended its fiscal 2012 on June 30, 2012, on a generally weak note, with full-year earnings of $1.33 per share, down 25% from the $1.66 per share posted in fiscal 2011. The company also sounded a warning that it intended to up its R&D spending and capital outlays going forward. The first quarter of fiscal 2013, which was reported on November 1, 2012, showed

MGT Capital Investments (MGT) just announced that it is suing the following five companies for patent infringement: MGM Resorts International (MGM), Caesar's Entertainment Corporation (CZR), Penn National Gaming (PENN), WMS Industries (WMS), and Aruze Gaming.

According to a MGT investor presentation, this case could generate between $330 million and $4.5 billion over the life of the patent (10 years). MGT currently has a very low market cap of $59 million primarily because Wall Street just isn't aware of this company yet, as there is no analyst coverage. This is the type of undervaluation and leverage I look for, where a $59 million company could receive up to $4.5 billion in royalties.

The patent involved in this lawsuit is US Patent No: 7,892,088 titled: Gaming Device Having a Second Separate Bonusing Event, and was issued in February of 2011. Casinos and slot machine manufacturers are allegedly infringing

Historical studies have shown that on average, the highest returns have come from stocks with the lowest market capitalization, but there have been long periods when large-cap stocks have outperformed smaller stocks. This year so far, large-cap stocks have outperformed small-cap and mid-cap stocks with a significant margin.

Indexes Total Returns, Year to Date, are shown in the table below (Data through 10/19/2012):

I searched for large-cap very profitable companies with above-average growth prospects that pay significant dividends and that technically are showing positive momentum.

I have elaborated a screening method, which shows stock candidates following these lines. Nonetheless, the screening method should only serve as a basis for further research.

The screen's formula requires all stocks to comply with all following demands:

1. The stock is included in the S&P 500 index. S&P Custom Indices Fact Sheet explanation:

Widely regarded as the best single gauge of the U.S.