Earlier this year, I wrote an article entitled Brazil: If We’re Really Doomed To Repeat History, I’m Buying, in which I presented the case that events were setting themselves up in a way that was eerily similar to 2002, just before the economy turned around and the equity market would go on to post multiple years of strong returns. Since then, the (NYSEARCA:EWZ) ETF is up around 20%, and there have been some additional data points and developments that have motivated me to provide an update to the country’s prospects. Many of the country’s fundamentals now point to it already being in the initial phase of a recovery, however the ongoing political turmoil, which has since seen the impeachment of president Dilma Rousseff, could prove a difficult source of “unknown unknowns” that hold back further investment inflows.
First of all, the stagflationary trends presented in the previous analysis have started a reversal. GDP, while still negative, has improved, and inflation has continued to fall after peaking at the end of last year. All of this is again remnant of early 2003, which marked a period of years of healthy equity returns:
define investment: Radient Technologies (RTI)
Advisors’ Opinion:
- [By James E. Brumley]
Some of the stories about how cannabis has changed lives for the better are nothing less than astounding. Take Illinois resident Darren Miller as an example. In 2015 Miller was diagnosed with lung cancer that was later deemed terminal. Miller underwent chemotherapy, without much hope, but also began using high-THC Indica cannabis oil. Miller is alive today, and arguably shouldn’t be.
Then there’s Floridian Branden Petro. Not only does Petro suffer epilepsy, he commonly experiences seizures stemming from the condition. Nothing has stopped the seizures as quickly or effectively as 200 milligram worth of THC cannabis oil, administered as a nasal spray. Within 20 seconds of using it, it’s as of the seizure never happened.
And there are millions of other such (and less dramatic) examples, all pointing in the same direction – cannabis has medical value on multiple fronts. Not facilitating its commercialization is a wasted opportunity.
It’s a notion that’s far from lost on the people that have built Canadian-based Radient Technologies Inc (CVE:RTI) from the round up, recently inking a deal with supplier of cannabinoid extracts, Aurora Cannabis.
It’s a real accolade. Aurora is one of the largest licensed producers of medical cannabis under Health Canada’s Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations (ACMPR), and recently began construction on an unprecedented 800,000 square foot production facility in Leduc County, Alberta. This facility, known as “Aurora Sky”, is anticipated to be capable of producing in excess of 100,000 kg of high-quality, low-cost marijuana per year.
In most regards though, Radient Technologies is the big winner of the deal, as the partnership is apt to put its high-tech facility in full demand, helping to advance the advent of cannabis in all its potential glory.
It’s a rather amazing science, really. Radient Technologies uses an ingredient-extraction process called microwave assisted proc
- [By Bryan Murphy]
It’s been a long time in the coming, but there’s no denying the tipping point has been reached — cannabinoids are the foundation for a whole new kind of medicine. And, the work-to-date turning cannabis into pharmaceuticals has been very encouraging.
Problem: While the premise of cannabinoids as drugs has been validated, the science of creating large quantities of pure cannabinoids remains more ineffective than effective. Radient Technologies Inc (CVE:RTI) is about the change that, leveraging a means of extracting a lot of cannabinoid material from a source, and ensuring the highest-level of purity and quality.
Radient Technologies manufactures natural ingredients for global customers across a range of industries, including food and beverage, nutrition, supplements, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. Using a proprietary, patented technology, Radient’s products are superior in quality and purity while manufactured at a significantly lower cost than other methods thanks to superior yields and efficiency.
To fully appreciate the science Radient has developed, however, one must understand the alternative methods currently employed.
With current approaches to create ingredients from an appropriate source, the material with the target compound or molecule in it is soaked in a solvent, heated, and then over the course of several hours the desired ingredient diffuses into the solvent. After filtration, drying, and other processing, that ingredient is finally isolated and then collected.
It works, but it’s far from ideal. Aside from the fact that this technique doesn’t work very well at large scale, yields are relatively low. Worse, many undesirable components can still be found in the extract, lowering the quality and purity of the ingredient.
Radient Technologies uses an ingredient-extraction process called microwave assisted processing, or “MAP,” for short.
Using its patented MAP process, Radient is able to selectiv
- [By Jim Robertson]
Shares of small cap natural compound and Cannabinoid extract stock Radient Technologies (CVE: RTI) have been taking off lately as the Company makes further progress commercializing its technology. The Company extracts natural compounds from a range of biological materials using microwave assisted processing (MAP), a patented technology platform which provides superior customer outcomes in terms of ingredient purity, yield and cost. This technology is based on the selective and localized heating of the moisture present in all natural materials using microwaves as the energy source. This gives the Company a technological advantage and expertise in selectively depositing microwave energy into different parts of a biomass’ complicated chemical system form the core of our extraction advantage.
- [By Jim Robertson]
Small cap Radient Technologies (CVE: RTI) is focused on extracting, isolating and purifying food/nutraceutical ingredients (colourings, flavourings, preservatives etc) and pharmaceutical raw materials from its20,000 square foot manufacturing plant in Edmonton, Alberta. The Companyworks with global brands across a range of industries (including Food and Beverage, Nutrition and Supplements, Pharmaceuticals, Personal Care and Cosmetics and Biofuel) andengageswithits clients in three distinct phases:
define investment: Computer Sciences Corporation(CSC)
Advisors’ Opinion:
- [By Monica Gerson] Related CSC Earnings Scheduled For May 24, 2016 8 Stocks You Should Be Watching Today Computer Sciences' (CSC) CEO Mike Lawrie on Q4 2016 Results – Earnings Call Transcript (Seeking Alpha)
Related Earnings Scheduled For May 24, 2016 8 Stocks You Should Be Watching Today Hewlett Packard Enterprise Announces Plans for Tax-Free Spin-Off and Merger of Enterprise … (GuruFocus)
Some of the stocks that may grab investor focus today are:
- [By R. Chandrasekaran]
Some of the outperforming stocks:
NVDIA Corp (NASDAQ: NVDA) trading up about 5.7 percent with a range between $69.50 and $71.72.
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) is gaining about 4 percent. The stock ranged between $770.94 and $787.73.
Computer Sciences Corporation (NYSE: CSC) is gaining about 3.3 percent with the stock trading between $56.10 and $58.01.
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) is adding about 3 percent with the stock ranging $59.78-$60.52.
Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGL) is gaining about 2.9 percent with the stock trading between $792.90 and $805.
Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) is adding approximately 2.9 percent with shares trading in the range of $34.15-$34.60.
Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) is gaining about 2.8 percent as the stock traded between $30.61 and $31.05.
Salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE: CRM) is adding about 2.8 percent with the shares traded in the range of $75.41-$77.00
define investment: Atlantia S.p.A. (ATASF)
Advisors’ Opinion:
- [By SEEKINGALPHA.COM]
Atlantia (ATASF) (AT.IM), Eiffage (OTCPK:EFGSY) (FGR.FP), Ferrovial (OTC:FRRVF) (FER.SM), Albertis (OTC:ABFOF) (ABE.SM) and Vinci (OTCPK:VCISF) (DG.FP)
define investment: Lincoln National Corporation(LNC)
Advisors’ Opinion:
- [By WWW.THESTREET.COM]
* The market bent yesterday but today it stabilized. (A good showing, all things being considered–but in no way decisive going forward).
* Gold +$5/oz.
* Crude oil +$0.50 and the rise is taking up some energy stocks.
* The Russell returned to the spotlight.
* Life insurance–particularly Lincoln National (LNC) (on an upgrade). Hartford Financial Services (HIG) gets a small lift.
* Retail returned from the depths. The standouts–L Brands (LB) , Kohl’s (KSS) , Bed Bath (BBBY) , Nordstrom (JWN) and Gap (GPS) .
* Ag equipment–after an analyst upgrade yesterday.
* Brokerages.
* Homebuilders catch a bid.
* Day one of the Masters Golf Tournament. - [By Lee Jackson]
Lincoln National Corp. (NYSE: LNC) also had the man at the top selling stock last week. Dennis Glass, the CEO of this insurance and retirement focused company, sold a block of 75,000 shares at between $71.00 and $71.28 apiece. The total for the sale was posted at $5 million. Shares closed Friday at $71.69, in a 52-week rangeof $34.16 to $73.71. The consensus price target is $73.17.
define investment: Fiesta Restaurant Group, Inc.(FRGI)
Advisors’ Opinion:
- [By Peter Graham]
A long term performance chart shows Chipotle Mexican Grills shares back to breakeven while of the small caps peers, El Pollo LoCo Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: LOCO) has had the worst performance, Fiesta Restaurant Group Inc (NASDAQ: FRGI) is off its 2015s peak and Chuy’s Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: CHUY) has been a mixed performer:
- [By Peter Graham]
A long term performance chart shows Del Taco Restaurants now outperforming Mexican restaurant stock peers such as mid cap Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc (NYSE: CMG) and small caps El Pollo LoCo Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: LOCO), Fiesta Restaurant Group Inc (NASDAQ: FRGI) and Chuy’s Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: CHUY) have mostly been drifting lower lately:
- [By Lisa Levin]
Fiesta Restaurant Group Inc (NASDAQ: FRGI) shares dropped 24 percent to $19.83. Fiesta Restaurant posted in-line Q4 earnings, but sales missed estimates. The company also disclosed that it has suspended its sale exploration process and appointed a new CEO. Raymond James downgraded Fiesta Restaurant from Outperform to Market Perform.
- [By Lisa Levin]
Benzinga's newsdesk monitors options activity to notice unusual patterns. These large volume (and often out of the money) trades were initially published intraday in Benzinga Professional . These trades were placed during Thursday’s regular session.
define investment: Forward Pharma A/S(FWP)
Advisors’ Opinion:
- [By Jim Robertson]
Last Friday, our Under the Radar Moversnewsletter suggested going long on small cap clinical-stage biopharmaceutical stock Forward Pharma A/S (NASDAQ: FWP):
- [By George Budwell]
Shares of theDanish drugmaker Forward Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:FWP) gained 48.2% yesterday as the result of a settlement and licensing deal with Biogen (NASDAQ:BIIB)involving an ongoing patent dispute over the multiple sclerosis drug Tecfidera. Per the terms of the deal, Biogen will fork overa non-refundable$1.25 billion licensing fee, and possibly pay 10% to 20% royalties on Tecfidera’snet sales to Forward starting in 2021.
