Membership warehouse operator Costco Wholesale Corporation ( COST ) on Tuesday caught some positive commentary from analysts at JP Morgan.
The firm maintained its "Overweight" rating on COST and lifted its price target from $94 to $96. That new target suggests a nearly 14% upside to the stock's Friday closing price of $84.48.
Last week, analysts at Goldman Sachs made a similar move on COST.
Costco shares were mostly flat in premarket trading Tuesday.
The Bottom Line
Shares of Costco ( COST ) have a 1.30% dividend yield, based on Friday's closing stock price of $$84.48. The stock has technical support in the $79-$80 price area. If the shares can firm up, we see overhead resistance around the $87-$88 price levels.
Costco Wholesale Corporation ( COST ) is not recommended at this time, holding a Dividend.com DARS™ Rating of 3.4 out of 5 stars.
Be sure to visit our complete recommended list of the Best Dividend Stocks , as well as a detailed explanation of our ratings system here .
MyNetFone Gains Official Certification From NBN Co For Broadband Services - PRWire
From late June 2012, MyNetFone will offer residential and business customers in NBN connected areas a range of broadband plans. Prices start from $39.95 per month for the ‘My NBN Basic’ plan, featuring 20GB (12mbps download speed), through to $99.95 for the “My NBN 100’ with 1TB download allowance (100mbps download speed).
Jim Hassell, Head of Product Development, Marketing and Sales at NBN Co Limited, said: “We welcome news that MyNetFone is gearing-up for the release of new residential and business plans following the completion of their onboarding certification. The growth in innovation and competition in the telco services market should be one of the key benefits of the NBN.”
As part of its broadband plans, MyNetFone will bundle its award-winning VoIP service for no additional fixed monthly cost. Customers will simply pay a flat 12.5 cents for untimed national calls and 24 cents per minute for mobile calls. International call costs vary from 1.9 cents per minute. A broad range of low-cost plans will be available to further cut call costs, depending on customers’ specific needs.
“The NBN levels the playing field considerably in terms of our ability to compete with the large incumbents,” commented MyNetFone CEO, Rene Sugo. “We will see a heightened level of competition in the market for broadband and voice services that will provide customers with more choice than they’ve ever had before.
“With local number portability, we can slay one of the telco industry’s sacred cash cows; line rental. This will quickly become a thing of the past as consumers won’t need to hang onto their copper phone line to retain their phone number. We can simply port their existing landline number into the cloud via their broadband connection.”
Symbio to be one of the first to offer true wholesale NBN aggregation
In addition to residential and business services provided by MyNetFone, wholly-owned subsidiary Symbio Networks has also been certified by NBN Co to provide wholesale access to the high-speed network.
Symbio will offer providers the benefit of number porting at the wholesale level to make the most of the IP communications shift enabled by the NBN. Symbio's market-leading, proprietary Number Porting system will allow providers to port phone numbers into the cloud and give end-users access to feature-rich functionality and flexibility of a new-generation IP solution delivered over the NBN.
“NBN really completes the picture, we have been successfully offering next generation hosted voice for 10 years but always held back by the lack of guaranteed bandwidth”, said Jon Cleaver, Symbio General Manager of Sales, “From our perspective, the key benefit of NBN is not necessarily the much-hyped super high speeds, but the ability to deliver a reliable, guaranteed speed to everyone. We anticipate this will significantly improve the user experience of the IP services and lead to an unprecedented increase in the rate of IP communications take-up.”
Symbio is expecting to deploy wholesale NBN services in NSW in June and will be working with a number of wholesale trial customers to ensure a smooth delivery of the NBN services & operational solutions.
Following the NSW deployment, Symbio will focus on establishing permanent POIs in Tasmania. This is a significant development, as Symbio will be one of only a few direct wholesalers making the investment to offer NBN services in Tasmania. Symbio sees this is a key opportunity to give providers access to a long-overlooked market, and to give Tasmanian end-users a wider choice of providers and an alternative to the big Telcos.
Once NSW and Tasmania projects are completed, Symbio will focus on finalising the interim sites in the rest of the country over the next few months, followed by a steady rollout to the permanent POIs.
As summed up by Rene Sugo, CEO of the MyNetFone Group including MyNetFone retail and Symbio Networks wholesale, “We are proud to play a part in changing the communications landscape, whether it be directly to end-users through MyNetFone or through Symbio’s wholesale customers. We are just happy to see this overdue shift in focus to IP when it comes to the communications landscape, and we believe it is vital to take Australia’s consumers and businesses into the new digital age.”
About MyNetFone Limited
MyNetFone Limited, (ASX:MNF) is Australia’s leading provider of hosted voice and data communications services for residential, business and enterprise users. My Net Fone was first founded in 2004, was listed on the ASX in mid 2006, has 55.2 million shares on issue, has operated profitably since 2009 and has paid dividends to its shareholders every six months since September 2010.
The company has a reputation for quality, value and innovation, having won numerous awards including the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 (2008, 2009, and 2010), PC User Product of the Year (2005), Money Magazine Product of the Year (2007) and many others.
MyNetFone’s wholly owned subsidiary, Symbio, owns and operates Australia’s largest VoIP network, providing wholesale carrier services to the Australian industry, including number porting, cloud-based hosted PBX services, call termination, call origination and many other infrastructure enabled services. The Symbio network carries over 1.5 Billion minutes of voice per annum.
Wholesale Electricity Surges in New York - Businessweek
Wholesale electricity jumped in New York as hot, humid weather from Massachusetts to Maryland prompted households and businesses to crank up their air conditioners.
Spot power in New York City rose to an average of $706.33 a megawatt-hour for the hour ended at 12 p.m., after soaring as high as $1,647.56 at 10:55 a.m., according to the New York Independent System Operator Inc., which manages the state grid. Electricity traded yesterday for delivery in the 10 a.m.-to-noon period today was priced in the $50-range.
The high in New York today may be 88 degrees Fahrenheit (31 Celsius), 14 above normal, with humidity rising to as high as 87 percent, according to AccuWeather Inc. in State College, Pennsylvania. Baltimore’s high will be 12 above normal at 91 degrees.
“Today’s demand is expected to be up with the heat and humidity, but power supplies are more than adequate to meet that demand,” Michael Clendenin, a spokesman for Consolidated Edison Inc. in New York, said in an e-mail. A cold front expected to move in later today and tomorrow will “bring temperatures back to normal by the end of the week,” he said.
Most power for a given day is purchased the previous day in what is known as the day-ahead market. Spot prices can jump when demand exceeds the amount secured in trading a day earlier.
New York Grid
Hourly prices across the New York state grid have been above $100 a megawatt-hour since 7 a.m., when demand climbed with the start of the work day. Electricity use on the grid was 28,009 megawatts as of noon, 14 percent above yesterday’s forecast for that time.
Thunderstorms predicted for later today may result in transmission disruptions and surging prices at around 3 p.m. to 4 p.m., said Brendyn Brooks-Stocking, a Boston-based Northeast power analyst with Genscape Inc., which tracks real-time data at power plants.
Today’s spot-market price gains won’t affect bills for Con Ed customers, according to Clendenin. The utility has more than three million customers in New York City and Westchester County.
The high in Worcester, Massachusetts, may be 83 degrees, 13 above normal.
Spot power across New England was $205.81 a megawatt-hour as of 12:40 p.m., based on gains in Connecticut and Western Massachusetts, compared with the day-ahead price of $43.74 for the grid, according to the region’s grid operator. Electricity on the grid averaged $151.65 from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., according to data from ISO New England Inc.
Mid-Atlantic
Demand on the mid-Atlantic grid operated by PJM Interconnection LLC, which spans 13 states from New Jersey to North Carolina and as far west as Illinois, was 120,911 megawatts as of 11:30 a.m., 4.8 percent more than the day-ahead forecast.
Prices have traded from lows that were mostly in the $20s and $30s per megawatt-hour to more than $400 in some of the more densely populated areas where transmission bottlenecks aren’t unusual, according to PJM data.
Public Service Enterprise Group (PEG) (PEG)’s territory in New Jersey averaged $278.58 a megawatt-hour for the hour ended at noon, after rising to a high today of $451.75. Spot power at Baltimore Gas & Electric Co.’s zone in Maryland averaged $314.68 for the same hour after rising as high as $431.58. Day-ahead prices were in the high $40s for both areas.
To contact the reporter on this story: Naureen S. Malik in New York at nmalik28@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dan Stets at dstets@bloomberg.net
Our culture of consumption glorifies compulsive shopping. It is time to treat the shopaholic like any other addict - Daily Mail
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Shopaholic. Even the word itself sounds faintly ridiculous, doesn’t it? It is a word frequently bandied affectionately by the most generous husband about a wife who has been on a spree, for as we all know it is usually women who feel most compelled to shop till they drop, don’t we?
It is a word which carries no particular stigma in our buy-with-one-click age of pile-it-high, throwaway fashion, next-day delivery and celebrity-endorsed and media-fuelled clamour for the next, must-have handbag, to-die-for designer sunglasses, or perfect pair of shoes. To say nothing of the coolest designer gadgets and top of the range tech which is practically obsolete the minute you take it out of the immaculate packaging and plug it in.
Consumer culture: Boxing Day sales crowds at the vast Westfield Stratford shopping centre
Yet compulsive shopping, or oniomania, to use its medical name, is as potentially devastating for the individual and their family as alcoholism, compulsive gambling or other addictions such as anorexia and related eating disorders, with which it shares many characteristics.
Aggravated by the rampant consumerism of the last decades, the problem is on the rise and I suspect we are now finally going to have to stop poking fun at the shopaholics and take their problem seriously.
Compulsive shoppers suffer from an inexplicable preoccupation with shopping and spending. They are generally thought to get a dopamine-related high or hit from their purchases. Yet few are ever even used or worn and, once they have their booty home, the post-purchase shopper often collapses in self-recrimination and anxiety about how they are going to pay for their next fix. Around 5.8 per cent of British adults are thought to be affected and cases are on the rise.
Treatment: Scientists have discovered that an Alzheimer's drug can help allay some symptoms of shopaholics
Now, psychiatrists have established that a drug called memantine, originally designed for patients with Alzheimers, may have a significant benefit for shopaholics. Clinical tests have shown improvement in many key symptoms, such as impulsive buying, anxiety and improvements in brain function linked to the impulsive urges and behaviour.
Speaking as someone who has witnessed the pernicious effects of a shopping addiction from extremely close quarters, I am pleased to hear about this breakthrough and equally glad to see the problem being treated seriously for a change, instead of being seen as a bit of a joke and used as a faintly misogynistic put-down.
What worries me is how and why we seem suddenly to be seeing so many cases of this kind of extreme addiction, from apparently simple shopping to the kind of horrific eating disorder which trapped 63 stone teenager Georgia Davis in her own home. Prescribing dementia medication to compulsive shoppers may indeed help, but aren't we simply replacing one addiction with another?
Shopaholic: Star Thompson, who spends 1,000 a week on clothes
Last week, the Daily Mail reported on another 19 year old, Star Thompson, from Wakefield, who had turned to glamour modelling and escort work to support her out of control shopping habit. The teenager spends 1,000 per week on clothes, although she already has wardrobes full of unworn garments, including 200 bras and 15 pairs of 250 Ugg boots.
She was recently given an extraordinary 6,000 as a birthday gift by her family, but she had spent 4,000 of the windfall within hours. 'You only live once', said Star, showing off her crammed cupboards to a tabloid newspaper. True, but what kind of a life can this really be?
Miss Thompson readily admitted that her shopping and spending makes her 'feel better'. Yet like every addict, it seems that she is caught in a tragic cycle of euphoric highs and guilt-ridden lows. Compulsive shopping is reportedly highly addictive, given that the rush and satisfaction of the purchase can disappear as soon as they leave the shop, meaning that they need to make yet another impulsive purchase or locate another trophy buy or bargain to maintain their good mood.
Extraordinarily, the problem was first documented more than 100 years ago but has only been seriously identified and acknowledged as a valid subject for psychiatric research in the last 15 years. Hardly a surprise when you consider the tandem rise of ever-multiplying possibilities for us to buy a whole new range of things we don’t really need and can often barely afford. We can now all shop in ever bigger mega-malls, we can shop on-line, we can even watch television shopping channels all through the night and we can now pay for it all with a swish of our smart phones.
Our culture revolves around consumption. Despite our straitened economic times, we are still surrounded, 24/7, by potent and relentless marketing and advertising which promotes impossibly high material aspirations, creating utterly artificial wants and needs, making young women like Star Thompson feel she is not valid or worthy if she does not possess a particular pair of shoes.
Perhaps Miss Thompson would respond well to the proposed new treatment with Alzheimers medication? She certainly needs some sort of intervention, not least from her parents who appear to be content, and certainly wealthy enough, to continue to underwrite her addiction. But for how much longer?
The sooner the Thompsons, and the rest of society, recognise that shopping in this way and on this scale constitutes a serious psychological problem, the sooner the sufferers will get the help they so clearly need.
Kenya: Nairobi blast 'caused by bomb' - BBC News
A blast at a shopping complex in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, that injured 33 people on Monday was caused by an explosive device, the police have said.
There had been confusion over its cause - officers first blamed it on an electrical fault, but the prime minister said it had a terrorist link.
Police now say they are hunting for two male suspects one of whom may be a German or Turkish national.
The police spokesman said one suspect may have entered Kenya from Somalia.
The militant group al-Shabab has repeatedly threatened to stage revenge attacks after Kenya sent troops to Somalia in October 2011.
In recent months, al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for a string of grenade and bomb blasts across Kenya, that have killed several people.
Monday's explosion tore apart a shopping centre on Moi Avenue at lunchtime.
One witness said a bag was abandoned next to her just before the explosion.
In Tuesday's statement, Kenya police spokesman Eric Kiraithe said the blast was "caused by an improvised explosive device planted in the building by criminal elements".
"The team has been able to recover several materials from the scene of the explosion which has been sent for forensic analysis to determine the composition of the explosive and its method of initiation," he said.
Mr Kiraithe appealed for the public to come forward with information and said one of the suspects may have entered Kenya through the border town of Garissa.
Prime Minister Raila Odinga visited the bomb site on Monday and said it the explosion had been a "heinous act of terrorism".
"We are under threat, but we will not be cowed," he said.
Earlier this year, the African Union force backing Somalia's interim government was boosted from 12,000 troops to nearly 18,000 to incorporate Kenyan troops which entered Somalia last October in pursuit of al-Shabab militants.
They accuse the Islamist fighters of being behind various kidnappings on Kenyan soil and of destabilising the border region.
Shopping for land - Leicester Mercury
Fosse Park has expressed an interest in expanding onto the Everards Brewery site, situated next to the shopping centre.
The brewery plans to relocate from its Castle Acres site adjacent Fosse Park to nearby land it already owns, close to the Leicestershire Police HQ in Enderby.
Last year, bosses announced a proposal to create an 11-acre food and drink park at the new site and sell its existing 12-acre facility. They hope to receive tens of millions of pounds from the sale.
Stephen Gould, Everards' managing director, said: "The current owners of Fosse Park have approached us. We have kept them up to date. We have always had an open dialogue with them
"There's active interest in the site from a number of parties, mainly from retailers. However, at no stage have we put the site formally on the market.
"It's being handled very sensitively and we are consulting widely."
The 12-acre Castle Acre site is to the south of the shopping park, between Braunstone and junction 21 of the M1. Fosse Park, which opened in 1989, is the UK's leading out-of-town shopping centre. It contains 40 shops over 37 acres and attracts 12 million visitors a year. It is currently owned by a group of Irish investors.
The then owners of Fosse Park signed a special agreement with Everards Brewery more than 10 years ago giving the shopping centre first option to buy the Everards site.
This agreement was not renewed after a deadline was reached. However, the park's current owners are still thought to be interested.
Fosse Park manager Adrian Young declined to comment and its owners could not be contacted.
Everards plan to occupy five acres of the food and drink park and offer the remainder to other businesses. The site would also contain a visitor centre.
Mr Gould said if the development was approved by Blaby District Council, work could commence by the end of the year.
Mr Gould announced Everards made a pre-tax profit of £2.47 million in the year to September 24, 2011, down £1.44 million on last year. The fall reflected one-off profit gains of £1.6 million made last year from the sale of property and the closure of its final-salary scheme.
The company said a 6.1 per cent rise in operating profit to £3.93 million over the same period better reflected day-to-day trading. Turnover was down 2.5 per cent to £28.2 million. The company, founded in 1849, employs 106 people and runs 176 pubs.
Take pleasure from the things you have rather than yearning for things you have not. Be the ad- man's nightmare 'a self confident human being.
- ron, Cumbria, 30/5/2012 03:09
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