Top Super Bowl Stocks

The Big Football Game is this Sunday, February 6, 2011, between the AFC champion Pittsburgh Steelers against the NFC champion Green Bay Packers, held for the first time at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The event involves sports and fans and celebration, but beyond that, it involves money and in a big way. I'm not just talking about the $135,000 seats still available in the Hall of Fame Suites at the stadium, I mean the amount of advertising dollars generated. It can cost a few million dollars for a 30 second ad.

Most of the companies that have chosen to advertise during the Super Bowl XLV broadcast are publicly traded stocks, so if you think these companies will benefit from this advertising, now is the time to pick out a few good ones and jump on the bandwagon. Here is a list of the advertisers along with their stock ticker symbols.

Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD)
Best Buy Co. Inc. (BBY)
Bridgestone Corp. (BRDCY.PK)
CarMax Inc. (KMX)
Coca Cola (KO)
Disney (DIS) Pirates of the Caribbean
E*TRADE Financial Corporation (ETFC)
Ford (F)
General Motors (GM) Silverado, Cruze, Volt
Hyundai Motor Co. (HYMTF.PK)
Kraft (KFT) Planters Nuts. Wheat Thins, Chips Ahoy
Motorola (MOT)
PepsiCo (PEP) Doritos
Salesforce.com (CRM)
Skechers USA Inc. (SKX)
Sony (SNE) Just Go With It, Battle: Los Angeles, Priest
Viacom (VIA) Paramount Pictures: Kung Fu Panda 2
Volkswagen AG (VLKAY.PK)

If you like interesting stock lists like this, don't forget to check out the other lists available at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Disclosure: Author owns DIS and F at the time the article was written.

Super Bowl is a registered trademark of the NFL.

By Stockerblog.com

What Stock Does Warren Buffett and Carl Icahn Agree On?

Two of the top investors are Warren Buffett and Carl Icahn. Both of these billionaires have been investing in stocks for years, with very successful track records. Warren Buffett, as most are aware, is the head of Berkshire Hathaway's (BRK-A) (BRK-B). Carl Icahn, a top trader who started his investment career in 1961, has previously taken significant holdings in numerous companies including RJR Nabisco, TWA, Texaco, Phillips Petroleum, Western Union (WU), Gulf & Western, Viacom (VIA-B), Uniroyal, Marshall Field, American Can, Revlon (REV), Blockbuster (BLOKA.PK), and Motorola (MOT).

If you look at the list of stocks that each own, you will find only one that they agree on.

The stock is NRG Energy, Inc. (NRG), which owns, builds, and operates power generation facilities. The stock trades at 9.5 times current earnings and 15 times forward earnings. On the positive side, the stock has $8.56 in cash per share and is trading at less than 21 per share, way below its book value of 31.66. However, the latest earnings were down over 50% on a 4% drop in revenues. The company does not pay a dividend.

For a list of stocks that Warren Buffett owns, along with other interesting stock lists, go to WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Author does not own any of the above.

By Stockerblog.com

Review of the MacWorld Expo

Last week, the annual MacWorld Expo was held at Moscone Center in San Francisco. Everything I read prior to attending the Expo made it sound like a letdown, and in some ways it was, primarily due to the fact that Apple (AAPL) was not participating. The exhibit hall seemed less than half the size of previous shows.

I'm not just talking about the lack of freebie giveaways. Last year I got an iPhone cover which retails for $25 and an H&R Block (HRB) tax preparation software CD which retails for about $30, both as free giveaways, and much, much more. This year, I was lucky to get a couple pens. (By the way, H&R Block didn't return this year.)

What i am referring to is the reduction in the variety of exhibitors (less than 250), and the number or attendees. Even the overall energy level seemed to have dropped over previous years.

But the exhibitors that were there still tried their best. One of the major vendors was IBM (IBM) surprisingly. But maybe not so surprising, as Apple is moving more into the business world. Other large firms exhibiting include American Express (AXP) , Cisco (CSCO), Hewlett-Packard Company (HPQ), Microsoft (MSFT), Motorola (MOT), VMware, Inc. (VMW), Western Digital Corp. (WDC), John Wiley & Sons Inc. (JW-A), and Xerox (XRX).

The New York Times Company (NYT) was there also, trying to push trial newspaper subscriptions. Talk about old technology. I really like The New York Times online, I just don't believe in printed newspapers any more.

The area with the most activity was the apps section, which took up a small footprint of the total floor but was very crowded with visitors looking for the latest and greatest applications for their iPhones. The one that impressed me the most was the Business Card Reader. This great app allows you to take a picture of a business card with your iPhone 3G and it immediately imports the contact information into the appropriate fields of your iPhone address book. It even recognizes French, German, and Spanish. The app currently is on sale for only $4.99 as part of the MacWorld Expo special. It is designed for the iPhone 3G or older models with a macro lens attachment.

iPhone and iPod accessories seemed to be the overall de facto theme of the Expo as there were dozens and dozens of accessory vendors, selling everything from recharging battery packs, iPhone covers, skins, and earphones.

I still enjoyed the Expo, and the smaller size did have its advantages. I was able to check out every exhibitor at least once or twice within just a couple hours.

Author owns AAPL, MSFT.

By Stockerblog.com