Isis (ISIS), Ligand (LGND) and Vical (VICL) have been my core biotech holdings since the mid 1990s and I have been steadily adding to these positions each time the market has lost faith. They share common themes and some differences. Isis and Vical have maintained consistent management throughout the years, whereas Ligand radically changed direction a few years ago when Daniel Loeb’s Third Point hedge fund took a stake. Now all three are focused on drug discovery; leaving the marketing to others.

All three have many pharmaceutical partnerships and many shots on goal, so one failure would not be devastating. In order of platform strength and a protective moat around their technology; Isis is the strongest, followed by Vical, with Ligand pulling up the rear.

Many investors are being sold on the idea of generating income in retirement by solely focusing on fixed income securities. That way they would have a stable income pretty much for life and there is a high likelihood that the principle would be returned intact after the bond matures. The main problem with this strategy is that while the income would remain unchanged over time, its real purchasing power would decline. If however investors purchased a diversified list of dividend growth stocks, they would be able to generate enough income and also enjoy the growing stream of distributions over time. That way investors would not have to worry too much about inflation eroding the purchasing power of their passive income. By focusing on such lists as dividend aristocrats, dividend achievers and checking the list of dividend increases regularly, investors could find the right dividend picks for their portfolios.

The following companies announced dividend increases last week:

Insmed (INSM) continues to be a Benjamin Graham Net Net stock. As I mentioned in my October portfolio update, I was waiting for the quarterly results to be released before I took further action.

INSM Still a Net Net Stock

After a full quarter, INSM still remains as a net net, selling below liquidation prices despite the market run up during October.

I own one gold stock---Great Basin Gold (GBG). It's an immaterial holding in my account, but I do have 2K shares @ $1.53 per share.

Here's a chart:

The Women’s Health Initiative ('WHI'), a study that demonstrated several lethal side-effects of hormone replacement therapy ('HRT'), has left many pharmaceutical companies scrambling to advance alternative therapies to meet the unique market demand created by the drop in hormone sales. Although several therapies have advanced to late-stage clinical studies, few represent a truly novel approach.

Pristiq, Wyeth’s (WYE) new treatment for depression and potentially –post menopausal hot flashes, is merely a metabolite of the multi-billion dollar blockbuster, Effexor. Aprella, Wyeth’s investigational combination product for the treatment of menopausal symptoms, repackages two commonly used classes of drugs; estrogens and selective estrogen receptor modulators. Instead of improvements in side-effects or enhanced efficacy, the pharmaceutical industry has employed a model where minor chemical alterations coupled with a profound marketing engine compensates for declining sales from products with patent expiration. It’s very seldom to find a pharmaceutical company that is developing a truly novel approach to therapeutics.

ClickSoftware Technologies Ltd. (CKSW) is the leading provider of workforce management and service optimization solutions. These create value for the client through enhanced efficiency and cost effectiveness; and higher level of satisfaction for the ultimate customer.

This article reviews CKSW’s progress and opportunities going forward in light of the CEO’s assessment that ClickSoftware is at an inflection point (a recent CKSW’s Investor Day presentation is available on the company’s home page). The focus is on the contextual underpinnings supporting the CEO’s assessment. We also review CKSW’s performance, resources, capabilities, and CKSW’s industry leadership position, as collective enablers contributing to the realization of the inflection point.

Starbucks (SBUX) is going to be a larger company 3, 5, and 10 years from now. The main reason Starbucks will grow is because coffee and tea are both enormous markets, domestically and globally. Second, Starbucks has low penetration rates in terms of the number of locations it has, especially in the BRIC countries. Finally, Starbucks has nice potential for growth in packaged coffee, ready to make beverages, and the instant coffee markets, especially internationally.

Coffee is an incredibly large market, domestically and globally. According to coffee-statistics.com, in the United States 400 million cups of coffee are consumed daily, or 146 billion cups per year, making the United States the leading consumer of coffee in the world. According to the Buck County Coffee Company, there are 1.4 billion cups of coffee sipped per day, making it one of the most consumed beverages in the world. You may prefer McDonald’s (MCD), Dunkin Donuts, Peet’s Coffee & Tea (PEET), Panera Bread (PNRA), or an independent house’s coffee, but I believe the coffee market is so large that there is more than a reasonable chance that Starbucks will be able to continue to grow its revenues and profits in the coffee segment.

As I slowly gain some confidence in this difficult stock market, I wanted to take another look at one of my past favorites, Meridian Bioscience (VIVO). I do not currently own any shares, but have owned shares on an off since first writing about this stock on this blog on April 22, 2004.

Meridian is in the medical diagnostic test kit business. As the Yahoo "Profile" on VIVO reports, Meridian Bioscience is

Canadian Income Trusts are in a good position to make money for investors after adjusting to the Halloween Betrayal of 2006, the Alberta royalty overreach of 2007 and the global financial follies of 2008. Each of the six stocks in our coverage is in an upward fundamental volume trend per unit adjusted for debt reduction and high income distributions (see chart Volume per Unit, below). The adjustment casts the trusts in a better light when reported volume is divided by adjusted units that have been declining for most of the trusts (see chart Units Outstanding, Adjusted, below). Bumps in the trend prior to the market peak last year reflect acquisitions.

The three largest conventional trusts acted as consolidators of smaller trusts in the face of changing trust taxation in 2011. Now those trusts are focused on reinvesting more cash flow. Considering our latest comparative analysis, Enerplus Resources Fund (ERF) retains a low McDep Ratio of 0.79 after we reduce estimated Net Present Value (NPV) to US$32 from US$36 a unit.
The largest income stock, Canadian Oil Sands Trust (COSWF.PK), has our buy rating, while the other five also offer attractive appreciation potential indicated by low McDep Ratios.

Introduction

Great Basin Gold is an emerging gold production company headquartered in Vancouver, Canada with operations in Nevada and South Africa. The company’s shares are listed on the TSX [GBG] in Canada, on the Amex (GBN) in the United States and on the JSE [GBG] in South Africa. The company is a focused developer with two new gold projects that are proceeding into mining. The Hollister mine is in the gold prolific area of the Carlin Trend in Nevada and the Burnstone mine is in Kimberly Reef area of the Witwatersrand Basin in South Africa. Great Basin Gold’s shares have been included in both the S&P/TSX Composite and S&P/TSX Small Cap Indexes.

GBG Projects

Hollister Mine – Nevada, USA

The USD vs the JPY is weakest in years. Yes, the DXY dollar index has been hitting new lows around 74. Yes, US government debt and deficits (the 2 infamous “D”s) have been skyrocketing and are projected to keep on growing in the coming years. Yes, the printing presses started by Ben Bernanke might be running faster than most people are comfortable with. And yes, the coming inflation will lead to further devaluation of the dollar which the government will not attempt to stop because they are happy to inflate away their piles of debt.

Competitive Technologies (CTT) is begining to see revenues generated as a result of the FDA approval of its very promising chronic pain mangement medical device. The company has already announced orders for 70 units and will recognize revenue for 17 units shipped in the past quarter (ending Oct. 31).

Five insiders, including the CEO, took advantage of the permitted window for insider purchaes last week and added to their holdings, despite the stock's 80% appreciation YTD.

At the end of each trading week, Hillbent scans the equity market for potential anomalies which exhibit extremely oversold and overbought conditions. Past observations have revealed that such candidates may experience reversal corrections to the upside or downside once the market reconfirms that their fundamentals remain solidly intact or relatively poor. From a contrarian perspective, these lists may also serve as a precursor to changes in institutional sentiment and underlying fundamentals.

(The purpose of this report is not to provide specific recommendations, but instead serve as a time-saving reference tool and starting point for investment ideas as the upcoming trading week unfolds. Of course, the results generated are not always perfect and users are strongly encouraged to perform their own due diligence on these names. Note that overbought and oversold conditions are based upon proprietary algorithms and quantitative models instead of conventional technical analysis indicators. As a supplement to this report, please refer to our ETF Market Trends™ Report to determine if market direction trends support a bullish or bearish investment bias over short-term, intermediate, and long-term timeframes.)

In my opinion the window of opportunity has closed temporarily (at least with regard to high quality equities trading at enormous discounts), altering my strategy at least until a meaningful correction has taken place. The rationale behind a more than likely correction can be found in previous articles

Shortly after the market open on Friday, Cel-Sci Corp. (CVM) issued a press release declaring that the company will commence a Clinical Study measuring the effectiveness of the company's LEAPS technology in the treatment of H1N1-hospitalized patients. According to the press release, blood will be drawn from the hospitalized patients and then the cells will be "activated" with the LEAPS-H1N1 treatment "in order to assess the cells' response as the basis for the planned future treatment of this patient population under a next-stage clinical trial protocol." [Quotes were taken directly from Friday's PR]

This study was expected, as the company informed investors in September that the FDA had given Cel Sci the 'go-ahead', but what is significant in my opinion, is the fact that Johns Hopkins has jumped on board. Johns Hopkins University is one of the nation's most prestigious - especially in terms of the School of Medicine. The fact that an "Institutional Review Board" of Johns Hopkins University gave the clearance for the this clinical study to proceed - with the Johns Hopkins name attached to it -should give sceptical investors a 'warm & fuzzy' that there is some significant potential for LEAPS to become an effective treatment for H1N1 patients.

It was announced by Celsius Holdings (CSUH.OB) in a Thursday morning press release that the Celsius calorie burning beverage will soon be available in Ralph's Supermarkets in Southern California.

The product is already entrenched in the NorthEastern portion of the country and a significant push into the heavily populated SouthWest is a logical next step. With fitness and 'looking good' a huge part of the SoCal lifestyle, Celsius has a chance to catch on a big way, in my opinion. Those beach bunnies roller blading down the coastline in skin tight shorts and half tops will only look that much better with a can of everyone's favorite calorie burning beverage in their hand; but of course, that's just my opinion.

CBS reported modest upside to estimates in 3Q09 with most of the excess coming from the syndication business. However, it was still a strong quarter of improvement with the CBS Network returning to positive ad growth, dramatically lower ad revenue declines at the local TV stations, and modest improvement but still deeply negative ad sales at the radio stations and outdoor properties. Furthermore, on the conference call (see transcript here), management noted that Oct and November trends have continued to improve, particularly at the local TV stations which are showing positive growth excluding the huge political spending during 2008's Presidential election.

Management reaffirmed 2009 guidance despite the upside in the third quarter. This disappointed some investors who saw it as a lack of confidence in 4Q ad spending at the TV network. If you add current 4Q EBITDA estimates to year-to-date reported EBITDA you get exactly to the mid point of management's guidance. What the street would have liked was an increase in the low end of guidance to suggest that results would ultimately settle in the top half. I understand that reading but I think it is overly bearish and that the company will reach the high end of its guidance.