Amazon Prime Raising their Rates to $99 a Year: Get It Now for Free While You Still Can

If you are a regular shopper at Amazon, you are probably familiar with the Free Super Saver Shipping option. The disadvantage of that option is that it can take up to eight business days, and that's after all of your items are available to ship. In addition, you need to order at least $35 worth of items. Amazon recently raised this threshold from $25. I've had times when I've had an order within a dollar or two of that amount, and had to come up with something else, in order to get the free shipping.
Well now you have another option. You have also heard about Amazon Prime, which allows you to have these benefits, but you weren't sure if it was worth it. The current rate is $79 but Amazon will raise its rate to $99 on April 17.
Well how would you like to have Amazon Prime for Free?
Amazon is offering this special for a limited time so sign up now. It allows you free access to Amazon Prime for 30 days.  In addition, if you sign up for the year before April 17, you will be able to take advantage of the lower rate for your first year.

Here's what you get:
* More than 40,000 movies and TV episodes
* Kindle Owners' Lending Library to borrow Kindle books
* FREE two-day shipping, no minimum order size, as many times as you want in the 30 day period

If you want more details, click on the following link:
Amazon Prime for Free
If you want to sign up now (the offer is only for a limited time), chick here:
Amazon Prime for Free
 
Join Amazon Prime - Watch Over 40,000 Movies

Cord Blood May Have Saved a Baby from Brain Damage: Top Cord Blood Stocks

A baby who had a stroke in utero, was treated with her own cord blood at Duke University. The cord blood had been stored from birth by a private cord blood bank. The director of the pediatric program at Duke believes that the cord blood cells help decrease inflammation in the section of the brain that was affected by stroke.

Cord blood is blood that comes from the umbilical cords of babies, and contains a significant amount of hematopoietic stem cells. Specialized cord blood banks store this blood. Cord blood stem cells are considered far superior to stem cells from bone marrow. Cord blood of a baby is preserved in the event it may be needed at some point in the future for treatment of possible cancer or genetic disease of the child or the child's siblings. Numerous diseases have been treated with cord blood. Information on cord blood and how it is collected, stored, and used, is available at CordBloodStocks.com.

Investors have a few options when investing in the cord blood industry. They can own the stocks of the cord blood banks, they can own the companies that use cord blood to develop cures, or they can own companies that produce extraction and storage products. WallStreetNewsNetwork.com has come up with a list of 20 companies involved in the cord blood field.

One example is PerkinElmer, Inc. (PKI), which owns ViaCell, a Cambridge, Massachusetts company which sells ViaCord, a product which is used to preserve baby's umbilical cord blood. They also research and other therapeutic uses of umbilical cord blood-derived and adult-derived stem cells. The stock trades at 30 times earnings and pays a small yield of 0.6%.

Baxter International Inc. (BAX) makes blood collection bags for umbilical cord blood and develop adult stem-cell therapies. They also own a patent for assembling and methods to process cord blood in a sterile fashion to avoid exposure to bacterial contamination and to disburse the introduction of cryopreservation solution into cord blood at a desired rate, thereby avoiding damage or trauma to the cord blood cells. The stock has a price to earnings ratio of 18 and sports a generous yield of 2.9%.

Celgene (CELG) is a New Jersey company that is involved in the discovery, production, and marketing of therapies designed to treat cancer and immune-inflammatory-related diseases. They own LifeBank USA, a cord blood bank. The stock has a PE of 46.

Amgen Inc. (AMGN) is also funding research into cord blood extraction, preservation, and storage. The stock has a forward PE of 19 and carries a decent yield of 2.0%.

For a free list of cord blood and stem cell stocks, which can be downloaded, updated, and sorted, go to WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Disclosure: Author did not own any of the above at the time the article was written.

By Stockerblog.com

Warren Buffett's Top 3 Stocks

The head of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A), Warren Buffett, is one of the three richest men in the world, in competition on a regular basis with Bill Gates and Carlos Slim. Buffett made his wealth the old fashion way, from investing. He has had a stellar long term performance with his investment portfolio, that many investors try to emulate.

Berkshire Hathaway currently has over 40 stocks in its portfolio, according to the free list of Warren Buffett stocks at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com. One way to tell what stocks Buffett likes best in his portfolio is to look at his largest holdings.

Buffett has investedover $20 billion in Wells Fargo (WFC), making up 20% of the Berkshire portfolio.  Wells trades at 12 times trailing earnings, and 11 times forward earnings. Net earnings for the latest quarter rose 10.2% on a 0.9% rise in revenues. The stock pays a yield of 2.5%, a lot more than what they pay on their savings accounts.

Buffett's second largest holding is Coca Cola (KO), with $16.5 billion invested at 15.7% of the portfolio. Coke trades at 20 times earnings with a forward price to earnings ratio of 17. Earnings dropped for the latest quarter, down 8.4%. The company has a dividend payout rate of 3.2%.

In third place is American Express (AXP). This credit card and travel company has a PE of 19, and forward PE of 15. Earnings for the latest quarter jumped by an amazing 105%, on a 6.9% revenue increase.The yield is 1.0%.

For a list of all the other Warren Buffett stocks, which includes PE ratios and yields, go to WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Disclosure: Author did not own any of the above at the time the article was written.

By Stockerblog.com

Stocks Going Ex Dividend the Third Week of March

  Here is our latest update on the stock trading technique called 'Buying Dividends'. This is the process of buying stocks before the ex dividend date and selling the stock shortly after the ex date at about the same price, yet still being entitled to the dividend. This technique generally works only in bull markets, and can work in flat or choppy markets, but you need to avoid the technique during bear markets.

In order to be entitled to the dividend, you have to buy the stock before the ex-dividend date, and you can't sell the stock until after the ex date. The actual dividend may not be paid for another few weeks. WallStreetNewsNetwork.com has compiled a downloadable and sortable list of the stocks going ex dividend in the near future. The list contains many dividend paying companies, lots with market caps over $500 million, and yields over 2%. Here are a few examples showing the stock symbol, the ex-dividend date, and the yield.

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Navios Maritime Acquisition	NNA	3/17	5.1%
Cincinnati Financial	CINF	3/17	3.8%
Tupperware	TUP	3/17	3.5%
Texas Roadhouse, Inc.	TXRH	3/17	2.3%

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Xcel Energy	XEL	3/18	4.0%
Pinnacle Foods Inc	PF	3/18	3.0%
Navios Maritime	NM	3/18	2.6%

The additional ex-dividend stocks can be found at wsnn.com. (If you have been to the website before, and the latest link doesn't show up, you may have to empty your cache.) If you like dividend stocks, you should check out some of the other high yield stock lists at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com or WSNN.com. Most of the lists are free.

Dividend definitions:

Declaration date: the day that the company declares that there is going to be an upcoming dividend.

Ex-dividend date: the day on which if you buy the stock, you would not be entitled to that particular dividend; or the first day on which a shareholder can sell the shares and still be entitled to the dividend.

Monthly Dividend Stock List
Record date: the day when you must be on the company's books as a shareholder to receive the dividend. The ex-dividend date is normally set for stocks at two business days before the record date.

Payment date: the day on which the dividend payment is actually made, which can be as long at two months after the ex date.

Book now available: Buying Dividends Revised and Expanded

Book now available: Stock Market Trivia
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Don't forget to reconfirm the ex-dividend date with the company before implementing this technique.

Disclosure: Author did not own any of the above at the time the article was written.

By Stockerblog.com