Why Chesapeake Energy Stock Is On Fire Today

What happened

Shares of Chesapeake Energy (NYSE:CHK) were in rally mode on Wednesday, surging more than 12% by 1 p.m. EST. Propelling the oil and gas producer's stock were its strong fourth-quarter report and outlook for 2019.

So what

Heading into the quarter, analysts expected that Chesapeake Energy's earnings would decline from $0.19 per share in the third quarter to $0.18 per share in the fourth due to slumping oil prices. Instead, the company reported unexpectedly strong results, as adjusted earnings came in at $0.21 per share even though production declined 7% year over year while expenses rose 15%. The company offset those issues by growing its higher-margin oil output.

Image source: Getty Images.

Chesapeake also provided an optimistic view of 2019. The company said that it plans to spend $2.3 billion to $2.5 billion in capital, which is roughly flat from the $2.366 billion spent last year. That's enough money to grow the company's oil production to an average of 116,000 to 122,000 barrels per day, an impressive 32% increase from 2018, driven by its acquisition of WildHorse Resource Development and its position in the Powder River Basin.

Now what

Chesapeake Energy believes it has reached an important inflection point. The combination of the sale of its Utica shale assets and the acquisition of Wildhorse have reduced its debt while transforming it into an oil-focused growth company. That rising oil output should enable the company to generate more cash, which would further improve its balance sheet, assuming, of course, crude prices don't crash again as they did at the end of last year. While Chesapeake Energy's transformation makes it an interesting oil stock to watch, its finances aren't yet back on solid ground -- which is why investors should remain cautious before jumping aboard the Chesapeake bandwagon, since the company has burned its shareholders many times in the past.

Should Social Security's Earnings Test Get the Ax?

Social Security offers a valuable financial safety net to older Americans, with an emphasis on helping retirees replace the income they used to get from work. Yet there's no requirement to stop working before you collect Social Security, and increasingly, people have started claiming Social Security at the earliest possible opportunity even if they continue to stay in their jobs.

However, there is a catch to claiming Social Security while you're still working. The Social Security earnings test applies to those who haven't yet reached full retirement age and claim early retiree benefits while still working. Yet as one policymaker recently pointed out, the earnings test has some shortcomings of its own. That makes eliminating the earnings test worth considering -- even if such a move would have some related consequences.

Image source: Getty Images.

A new controversy about Social Security

Alicia Munnell heads the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, and she recently wrote about the impact of Social Security's earnings test. As Munnell sees it, the best way to ensure that older Americans have the income they need is to take away any obstacles to their choosing to work as long as possible. The longer people stay in the workforce, the easier it is for them to sustain themselves financially once they do retire.

The earnings test takes away Social Security benefits under certain circumstances. Each year, new Social Security earnings limits come into effect that define the maximum that a person who's younger than full retirement age can earn before forfeiting a portion of his or her Social Security benefits. In particular, the following rules apply for 2019:

If you're younger than full retirement age throughout 2019, then maximum earnings for 2019 are $17,640. Above that, you'll lose $1 in annual Social Security benefits for every additional $2 you earn. If you start taking benefits during 2019, then the monthly limit is $1,470 for the period of time you're receiving Social Security. Those who reach full retirement age during the year have higher limits and less onerous forfeiture provisions. For 2019, you'll lose $1 in annual benefits for every $3 you earn above the annual limit of $46,920. But once you reach full retirement age, any earnings after that date don't count toward the total. If you intend to retire in the middle of the year, another rule applies. Even if your earnings while you were still working were so high that they'd take away your benefits for the full year, you can still claim monthly checks for the months that you aren't working.

If that seems complicated, that's because it is. Munnell argues that many people don't understand the earnings test, and that acts to deter people from working while on Social Security -- and from claiming Social Security while they're still working.

So would getting rid of the earnings test be a good thing?

It's that last point that leaves Munnell in a dilemma. On one hand, if getting rid of the earnings test would keep more people working longer, it would be a net positive for the financial condition of older Americans. But if eliminating the earnings test leads more people to claim Social Security before they retire, then it would potentially lead more people to claim as early as possible.

Claiming early has an unrelated impact on financial security by reducing the size of benefit payments. That in turn affects how much surviving spouses receive after the death of a working spouse. Because surviving spouses are often in the most precarious financial condition among retirees, anything that cuts those payments could have a negative effect that outweighs any positives from longer workforce participation.

Nevertheless, there's past evidence that eliminating the earnings test could boost employment levels among older Americans. It used to be that the earnings test applied to all recipients, but in 2000, it was removed for those who had reached full retirement age. The impact of that move included a 3-percentage-point boost to labor force participation and a 15% rise in earnings.

The question of what to do with the Social Security earnings test is more complicated than it might seem at first glance. Yet if the top priority in trying to help older Americans be as financially stable as possible in their golden years, taking away any perceived impediment to work -- whether or not it's really intended to be an obstacle -- could be worth any related downsides.

Live the life you want

Deciding when to stop working can have an impact on your Social Security, but you shouldn't let potential reductions in benefits keep you from making the right life decision. By being aware of the multiple options you have to avoid losing your benefits, you'll be able to manage your career exactly the way you want.

This Top Marijuana Stock Will Head to the NYSE Next Week

The marijuana industry is transforming rapidly before our eyes. What had once been an overlooked and taboo industry that had a very uncertain future is now expected to generate close to $17 billion in legal sales in 2019. Leading the charge for this rapid growth is North America.

To our north, Canada became the first industrialized country to legalize recreational pot in October, while to our south, Mexico gave the green light to medical marijuana in June 2017 (and is strongly considering adult-use legalization this year). Meanwhile, in the U.S., two-thirds of all states have legalized medical cannabis, with 10 of these states also allowing adult consumption.

Image source: Getty Images.

Eight pot stocks now trade on the NYSE or Nasdaq...

However, legalizations aren't the only means of transformation that we've witnessed. We're also seeing a steady uptick in the number of marijuana stocks uplisting from the over-the-counter (OTC) exchange to reputable U.S. exchanges, such as the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) or Nasdaq.

For uplisting stocks, there are multiple reasons to make the move. For starters, there's the added validity of having their common stock listed next to other time-tested and often profitable businesses. As noted, the cannabis industry is legal in Canada, and it's going to be around for a long time to come. But moving to the NYSE or Nasdaq further validates the marijuana industry as a legitimate business model that's open to serious investment.

Moving to the NYSE or Nasdaq also rolls out the red carpet for Wall Street, which isn't always allowed to invest in or institute coverage on companies listed on the OTC exchange. By moving to the NYSE or Nasdaq, pot stocks are giving the all-clear to Wall Street firms that they're open for investment and/or coverage. It might also mean even easier access to nondilutive forms of financing.

To add to this point, listing on the NYSE or Nasdaq also means increased visibility and the likelihood of higher average daily trading volume. This should mean more liquidity and less intraday volatility.

To date, more than a half dozen marijuana stocks have made the move, with Innovative Industrial Properties and Tilray going the initial public offering route on their respective exchanges, Cronos Group and Village Farms International uplisting to the Nasdaq, and Canopy Growth, Aurora Cannabis, Aphria, and HEXO choosing the NYSE.

Image source: Getty Images.

...and it's about to be nine

Well, it's time to make room once again, because this coming Monday, Feb. 25, another top-tier marijuana stock will call the NYSE its new home: CannTrust Holdings (NASDAQOTH:CNTTF). Beginning this coming week, CannTrust will trade under its new symbol "CTST," albeit it will hang onto its ticker symbol of "TRST" in Canada (TRST is already taken in the U.S.). 

Ontario-based CannTrust may not find itself in the spotlight nearly as much as, say, Aurora Cannabis or Canopy Growth, but that doesn't mean it won't be a major player in Canada's pot market. According to the company's management team, in excess of 100,000 kilograms of peak annual cannabis production is the goal, which would make CannTrust a borderline top-10 producer by maximum annual yield. Plus, with its focus on hydroponics (growing plants in a nutrient-rich water solvent as opposed to soil) and access to cheap water and electricity, CannTrust has an opportunity to be a low-cost producer.

However, the past couple of months have been a bit of a roller-coaster ride for CannTrust. The initial 450,000-square-foot expansion at its Niagara Perpetual Harvest facility was completed with ease. Meanwhile, the remaining 600,000-square-foot phase 3 expansion had been stuck in limbo due to permitting issues with the town of Pelham. On Jan. 22, 2019, following a lengthy stalemate, CannTrust reached an agreement with Pelham to expand its facility by 390,000 square feet instead of the originally requested 600,000 square feet. However, due to the addition of improved climate-control systems and increased automation, management still expects north of 100,000 kilos in peak annual production, even with 210,000 square feet less in growing space than initially planned.

Image source: Getty Images.

CannTrust is also on the lookout for what it calls "strategic alternatives" to help meet its goal of 100,000-plus kilos of annual output. By uplisting to the NYSE, the company should have little issue obtaining nondilutive financing if it chooses not to raise capital or make acquisitions by selling its own stock. With 210,000 square feet less in growing space than initially anticipated, acquisitions are seeming likelier by the day to reach its production targets.

What'll be particularly intriguing about CannTrust is how well the company responds to its Pelham hiccup. Its Niagara facility and much smaller Vaughan facility both looked to be on track for low-cost hydroponic production. But with the added expenses involved with automation and the possible need to acquire new growing capacity at a presumed premium, low-cost production is no longer a guarantee. In fact, fiscal 2019 profit projections for the company have been more than halved over the last three months, leading to a forward P/E that's now pushing triple digits.

Long story short, uplisting resolves CannTrust's visibility issue, but the company still has plenty to prove to Wall Street and investors.

10 Most Overpaid CEOs

Wide differences between chief executive officer compensation and the median compensation of any other employee have been a factor in the rise of shareholder resolutions seeking to limit a company’s CEO pay. What’s particularly interesting is the number of large institutional investors wading in on behalf of shareholders.

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), the largest pension fund in the country with more than $350 billion in assets, increased the percentage of CEO pay packages it voted against in 2013 (6.6%) to 45% in 2018. The Florida State Board of Administration, which manages the state’s retirement system, doubled its votes against CEO pay from 22.7% to 54% over the same period.

Three U.S. asset management firms controlling between 15% and 20% of most U.S. public companies — BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street — have not seen fit yet to oppose many CEO pay deals. According to the 2019 edition of As You Sow’s The 100 Most Overpaid CEOs, these three firms “tend to vote to approve almost every CEO pay package presented to them.” In fact, none voted against more than 16 of the 100 most overpaid CEO pay packages. If the votes of these giant firms were to be excluded from the calculations, the percentage increase in negative votes would be even greater.

Some proxy advisory firms perform considerably better. Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) voted against proposed pay packages for 33 of the 100 most overpaid CEOs. Glass Lewis voted against 49, Egan-Jones also voted against 49, and Segal Marco voted against 70.

As You Sow ranks its list of overpaid CEOs based on two scores. The first, which is double weighted, computes CEO pay, assuming such pay is related to total shareholder return. The second identifies those companies wherein the most shares were voted against the CEO pay packages.

Here are the top 10 most overpaid CEOs along with their company, pay package, median employee pay, and CEO-to-median ratio.

1. Ronald F. Clarke, Fleetcor Technologies
> Pay: $52.64 million
> Median employee pay: $34,700
> Ratio: 1,517 to 1

2. Mark V. Hurd and Safra Catz, Oracle
> Pay: $81.56 million
> Median employee pay: $89,887
> Ratio: 907 to 1

3. Hock Tan, Broadcom
> Pay: $103.21 million
> Median employee pay: n/a
> Ratio: n/a

4. Dirk Van de Put, Mondelez International
> Pay: $42.44 million
> Median employee pay: $42,893
> Ratio: 990 to 1

5. Stephen Wynn, Wynn Resorts
> Pay: $34.52 million
> Median employee pay: $44,437
> Ratio: 777 to 1

6. Robert Iger, Walt Disney
> Pay: $36.28 million
> Median employee pay: $46,127
> Ratio: 787 to 1

7. W. Nicholas Howley, TransDigm Group
> Pay: $61.02 million
> Median employee pay: $46,742
> Ratio: 1,306 to 1

8. Brian Duperreault, American International Group
> Pay: $43.09 million
> Median employee pay: $64,186
> Ratio: 671 to 1

9. Margaret H. Georgiadis, Mattel
> Pay: $31.28 million
> Median employee pay: $6,271
> Ratio: 4,987 to 1

10. E. Hunter Harrison, CSX
> Pay: $151.15 million
> Median employee pay: $98,697
> Ratio: 1,531 to 1

As You Sow’s full report is available from this introductory page.

ALSO READ: Why Warren Buffett’s Annual Letter and Annual Report Will Mean So Much

SecureCoin Hits 1-Day Volume of $10.00 (SRC)

SecureCoin (CURRENCY:SRC) traded down 3.7% against the U.S. dollar during the 24 hour period ending at 23:00 PM E.T. on February 21st. One SecureCoin coin can currently be bought for $0.0012 or 0.00000030 BTC on popular cryptocurrency exchanges including CoinExchange and Cryptopia. Over the last seven days, SecureCoin has traded up 21.7% against the U.S. dollar. SecureCoin has a total market capitalization of $11,779.00 and $10.00 worth of SecureCoin was traded on exchanges in the last day.

Here is how other cryptocurrencies have performed over the last day:

Get SecureCoin alerts: LUXCoin (LUX) traded up 22.4% against the dollar and now trades at $0.48 or 0.00012096 BTC. Argentum (ARG) traded down 5.9% against the dollar and now trades at $0.0250 or 0.00000630 BTC. Digitalcoin (DGC) traded down 0.5% against the dollar and now trades at $0.0023 or 0.00000059 BTC. AnarchistsPrime (ACP) traded 50.3% lower against the dollar and now trades at $0.0006 or 0.00000014 BTC. StrikeBitClub (SBC) traded flat against the dollar and now trades at $0.0009 or 0.00000013 BTC.

SecureCoin Profile

SecureCoin (SRC) is a proof-of-work (PoW) coin that uses the
Multiple Algorithms hashing algorithm. It launched on August 28th, 2013. SecureCoin’s total supply is 9,892,276 coins. SecureCoin’s official website is www.securechain.com. SecureCoin’s official Twitter account is @securecoin and its Facebook page is accessible here.

Buying and Selling SecureCoin

SecureCoin can be traded on these cryptocurrency exchanges: Cryptopia and CoinExchange. It is usually not possible to buy alternative cryptocurrencies such as SecureCoin directly using US dollars. Investors seeking to trade SecureCoin should first buy Bitcoin or Ethereum using an exchange that deals in US dollars such as Coinbase, Gemini or GDAX. Investors can then use their newly-acquired Bitcoin or Ethereum to buy SecureCoin using one of the aforementioned exchanges.

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High Dividends, Low Taxes: A Careful Investor's Guide To Preferred Stocks

&l;p&g;&l;sup class=&q;drop-cap color-accent font-accent&q;&g;L&l;/sup&g;&l;/p&g;&l;p&g;ooking for cash flow in a taxable account? Consider preferred stocks—but first get a reading on their "qualified dividend income."&l;/p&g;&l;p&g;J.P. Morgan Chase pays a good dividend, yielding just over 3% on the common shares. Not good enough? You can get more. JPM has some uncommon shares yielding well above 5%.&l;/p&g;&l;p&g;We're talking about preferred stock, that very unfashionable kind of equity that pays a fixed dividend and thus acts a lot like a bond. If you need investments with a high payout, preferreds are worth a look. And if you are investing in a taxable account, they are worth a close look. Some of them pay dividends qualifying for a reduced federal tax rate; many don't.&l;/p&g;&l;figure class=&q;image-embed embed-4&q;&g;&l;div&g;&l;img src=&q;https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5c66fbf74bbe6f09e66c6f38/960x0.jpg?fit=scale&q; alt=&q;&q; data-height=&q;2500&q; data-width=&q;4444&q;&g;&l;/div&g;&l;figcaption&g;&l;fbs-accordion&g;&l;p class=&q;color-body light-text&q;&g;&l;small&g;Ryan Garcia for Forbes&l;/small&g;&l;/p&g;&l;/fbs-accordion&g;&l;/figcaption&g;&l;/figure&g;&l;p&g;What follows here is a beginner's guide to this fixed-income sector. Be forewarned that assembling a portfolio of preferreds is a challenging assignment. It's hard to find good stocks, hard to get prices for them and hard to get information on that vital matter of tax rates. &l;/p&g;&l;p&g;Our sherpa for this journey is Michael Livian, 47, a U.S.-born chartered financial analyst whose European upbringing explains his fluency in four languages. He is chief executive of the mid-Manhattan money manager &l;a href=&q;https://www.llfadvisors.com/&q; target=&q;_blank&q; class=&q;color-accent&q;&g;Lehmann Livian Fridson Advisors&l;/a&g;. (Forbes distributes a newsletter published by Marty Fridson.)&l;/p&g;&l;div class=&q;embedly-align &q;&g;&l;fbs-embedly style=&q;padding-bottom: 31.25%;&q; iframe-src=&q;https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fe.infogram.com%2Fd3ea0b08-23d8-405e-98de-a5904c58556a%3Fsrc%3Dembed&a;url=https%3A%2F%2Finfogram.com%2Fbaldwin-investment-guide-toc-v1-1hzj4o5l10d72pw&a;image=https%3A%2F%2Finfogram-thumbs-1024.s3.amazonaws.com%2F0a7c6422-ee2f-493d-9f3d-ad451a683d3f.jpg&a;key=3ce26dc7e3454db5820ba084d28b4935&a;type=text%2Fhtml&a;schema=infogram&q;&g;&l;/fbs-embedly&g;&l;/div&g;&l;p&g;Livian is an intense researcher, given to abstruse statistical analyses of coupon rates, credit ratings and price momentum. Here's the end point of all that data work: Preferred stocks are a pretty good buy at the moment.&l;/p&g;&l;p&g;The portfolios Livian manages for income-hungry retirees usually combine common stocks with fixed-income elements like junk bonds and preferred stocks. He's not adding much junk these days, he says: "From the perspective of generating income and preserving capital today, you're better off in cash and high-yielding preferreds."&l;/p&g;&l;fbs-ad position=&q;top&q;&g;&l;/fbs-ad&g;&l;p&g;Preferreds from solid issuers are somewhat risky. They got mauled in the financial crisis, but most of them kept up their dividends and the prices recovered. Except for the favorable tax treatment sometimes available on their dividends, high-quality preferreds are on a par with low-quality bonds. Which is to say: The preferred equity of a class act like J.P. Morgan is about as risky as the debt of a trashy company like General Electric.&l;/p&g;&l;p&g;As with junk bonds, so with preferreds: You get a high payout, an occasional hit to principal and no growth. We're talking about straight preferreds, by the way; the ones that convert into common shares are an entirely different animal.&l;/p&g;&l;p&g;Preferred stock ranks between debt and common stock in a company's capital structure. That means that, in times of trouble, owners of preferred stock must be sacrificed before bondholders suffer any damage. A company's directors can suspend a preferred dividend on a whim; they are, however, motivated to keep paying because they cannot pay a dividend on the common shares in any quarter unless the preferred holders get their full piece in that quarter.&l;/p&g;&l;figure class=&q;image-embed embed-14&q;&g;&l;div&g;&l;img src=&q;https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5c6717e1a7ea4309dc6a8a05/960x0.jpg?fit=scale&q; alt=&q;&q; data-height=&q;640&q; data-width=&q;800&q;&g;&l;/div&g;&l;figcaption&g;&l;fbs-accordion&g;&l;p class=&q;color-body light-text&q;&g;&l;/p&g;&l;/fbs-accordion&g;&l;/figcaption&g;&l;/figure&g;&l;p&g;Sometimes trouble arrives suddenly. The preferred shares of Freddie Mac were considered gilt-edged a little over a decade ago. When this company was bailed out by the federal government the preferred holders were flushed down the drainpipe. Be thankful &l;a href=&q;https:// https://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2019/01/21/as-30b-in-wildfire-claims-bankrupt-pge-california-wonders-who-will-pay-after-the-next-conflagration&q; target=&q;_blank&q; class=&q;color-accent&q;&g;if you did not buy preferred stock in Pacific Gas &a;amp; Electric&l;/a&g; just before California caught fire.&l;/p&g;&l;p&g;So the first rule is: diversify. Buy a dozen issues if you buy any.&l;/p&g;&l;p&g;Next rule: trade cautiously. Many preferred stocks have thin volumes. "Price movements are idiosyncratic," Livian says. Meaning, the ask price may bear only a faint relation to the value of the share. He recently noted a Kansas City Southern preferred trading to yield less than the less risky debt of the same issuer. That makes no sense.&l;/p&g;&l;p&g;Livian recommends that you buy or sell only with a limit order, spelling out the worst price at which you are willing to transact. Don't put in a stop-loss order, causing an automatic sale when the price dips. In a thinly traded stock, he says, that's an invitation to get whipsawed.&l;/p&g;&l;fbs-ad position=&q;topx&q;&g;&l;/fbs-ad&g;&l;p&g;Next: beware calls. Almost all issuers of preferred shares reserve the right to redeem them anytime after a certain date, often five years from the date of issue. Disappointing but tolerable if the share you bought new for $25 gets taken away at $25. Painful if you paid $26.50.&l;/p&g;&l;p&g;Before buying a stock at a premium over par value, look at the earliest call date and figure out what your return would be if the issue is called and your premium vaporized. Roughly speaking, the yield to call is equal to the coupon on the security minus the annualized decrement to principal. &l;/p&g;&l;p&g;Livian goes beyond the numbers. He considers an issuer's need for capital and the expense it might incur to refinance a preferred with a new issue carrying a slightly lower coupon. In some cases he is willing to make a calculated bet that a stock won't be called soon. He likes both the Schwab Series D and the KKR Series A, despite low yield-to-call numbers for these issues.&l;/p&g;&l;figure class=&q;image-embed embed-15&q;&g;&l;div&g;&l;img src=&q;https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5c6717f4a7ea4309dc6a8a08/960x0.jpg?fit=scale&q; alt=&q;&q; data-height=&q;596&q; data-width=&q;800&q;&g;&l;/div&g;&l;figcaption&g;&l;fbs-accordion&g;&l;p class=&q;color-body light-text&q;&g;&l;/p&g;&l;/fbs-accordion&g;&l;/figcaption&g;&l;/figure&g;&l;p&g;Last item on our agenda is the tricky matter of taxes. Some issuers dish out payments that qualify to be federally taxed at the favorable rates on long-term capital gains (0% to 20%, not counting the 3.8% Obamacare surcharge). "Qualified dividend income" is the IRS lingo. Investing in a taxable account, you want all your dividends to be QDI.&l;/p&g;&l;p&g;Dividends from a bank or insurer are likely to be QDI. Dividends from a real estate investment trust or energy partnership are very unlikely to qualify. Dividends from so-called "trust preferreds," which are really bonds carved up into $25 pieces, do not qualify. Don't own a non-QDI share unless you can stuff it into an IRA.&l;/p&g;&l;fbs-ad position=&q;topx&q;&g;&l;/fbs-ad&g;&l;p&g;Livian counts 932 preferreds with enough trading volume to have meaningful price data. Roughly half, he says, are clearly QDI issues, with tax treatment of the rest either unfavorable or murky. Issuers are almost always mum on this point, perhaps because they can't be sure of how their payouts will be treated in any given year until the corporate tax return is complete. I expect all of the stocks in the table to be paying QDI in 2019, but there are no guarantees.&l;/p&g;&l;p&g;Getting info on preferreds and funds that own them is a chore, beginning with the tickers. The share that goes by &l;a href=&q;https://finance.yahoo.com/chart/JPM-PC/&q; target=&q;_blank&q; class=&q;color-accent&q;&g;JPM-PC on Yahoo Finance&l;/a&g; is &l;a href=&q;https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1GCEU_enUS820US820&a;amp;tbm=fin&a;amp;q=NYSE:+JPM-C&a;amp;stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAONgecRowS3w8sc9YSn9SWtOXmPU5OIKzsgvd80rySypFJLmYoOyBKX4uXj10_UNDdOy8iyTjSpzeBaxcvtFBrtaKXgF-Oo6AwDVTCK1SwAAAA&q; target=&q;_blank&q; class=&q;color-accent&q;&g;JPM.C on Google Finance&l;/a&g;, JPM/PC on Fidelity and JPM/PRC on Schwab. Fidelity doesn't tell you when the security can be called; Schwab has an answer to that question but it doesn't agree with what's on J.P. Morgan's investor page. Morningstar reports that the portfolio of the &l;a href=&q;https://www.morningstar.com/etfs/arcx/pgx/betaquote.html&q; target=&q;_blank&q; class=&q;color-accent&q;&g;Invesco Preferred ETF&l;/a&g; (PGX) has an average credit rating of AAA, which is quite at variance with what Invesco says.&l;/p&g;&l;p&g;A Bloomberg terminal gives you all the statistics you might want on a preferred stock. If you don't have one of those things, be creative. Take a peek at the financials for a fund that owns preferreds. For call dates and credit ratings, &l;a href=&q;https://www.invesco.com/portal/site/us/investors/etfs/product-detail?productId=PGX&q; target=&q;_blank&q; class=&q;color-accent&q;&g;the portfolio page that Invesco publishes for PGX&l;/a&g; is quite helpful. &l;/p&g;&l;fbs-ad position=&q;topx&q;&g;&l;/fbs-ad&g;&l;p&g;The annual report for &l;a href=&q;http://flaherty-crumrine.com/&q; target=&q;_blank&q; class=&q;color-accent&q;&g;Flaherty &a;amp; Crumrine &l;/a&g;Preferred Income (PFD) conveniently flags issues that have been paying QDI. The &l;a href=&q;https://www.invesco.com/portal/site/us/investors/etfs/product-detail?productId=pgf&q; target=&q;_blank&q; class=&q;color-accent&q;&g;Invesco Financial Preferred ETF&l;/a&g; (PGF) tracks an index for which QDI is a criterion, so, if you don't mind a bank-heavy portfolio, you could copycat its big positions and be reasonably assured of collecting QDI. QuantumOnline has a rich data set (free with registration) that includes a QDI screen.&l;/p&g;&l;p&g;Is all of this headache worth it? I think so. Net of damage to principal when a premium-priced stock is called in or your utility inadvertently torches the countryside, you can expect a return of 5%. Allow for a 15% federal tax (relevant to most of the people reading this paragraph) plus a 3.8% surcharge (for the ones with income over $250,000) and you're left with 4% and a fraction. That beats the not quite 3% you can get on the &l;a href=&q;https://investor.vanguard.com/mutual-funds/profile/vwlux&q; target=&q;_blank&q; class=&q;color-accent&q;&g;Vanguard Long-Term Tax-Exempt Fund&l;/a&g;. &l;/p&g;&l;p&g;Or you could buy a fund. Less work, but you'll lose a quarter of a point or more to fees (offset in some cases by income from securities lending). Another drawback to a fund is that it may throw some non-QDI income your way.&l;/p&g;&q;,&q;bodyAsDeltas&q;:&q;

Top 5 Medical Stocks To Buy For 2019

tags:ORC,ACRS,RARE,LGI,NYNY,

News coverage about Haemonetics (NYSE:HAE) has been trending somewhat positive recently, according to Accern Sentiment. Accern identifies positive and negative press coverage by reviewing more than 20 million blog and news sources. Accern ranks coverage of companies on a scale of negative one to positive one, with scores closest to one being the most favorable. Haemonetics earned a daily sentiment score of 0.17 on Accern’s scale. Accern also gave news stories about the medical instruments supplier an impact score of 46.2080722776484 out of 100, meaning that recent press coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an impact on the company’s share price in the near term.

Several research firms have commented on HAE. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $125.00 price target on shares of Haemonetics in a report on Tuesday, August 7th. TheStreet cut Haemonetics from a “b” rating to a “c+” rating in a report on Monday, August 20th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Haemonetics from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 8th. Barrington Research lifted their price target on Haemonetics from $90.00 to $118.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 9th. Finally, Zacks Investment Research upgraded Haemonetics from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $105.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday, June 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. The company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $98.33.

Top 5 Medical Stocks To Buy For 2019: Orchid Island Capital, Inc.(ORC)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Logan Wallace]

  Orchid Island Capital (NYSE: ORC) and Alexandria Real Estate Equities (NYSE:ARE) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings and dividends.

• [By Paul Ausick]

  Orchid Island Capital Inc. (NYSE: ORC) fell about 9.7% to post a new 52-week low of $7.85 Thursday after closing at $8.69 on Wednesday. The 52-week high is $12.60. Volume of about 5.2 million was nearly 5 times the daily average of around 1.1 million. The company lowered its monthly dividend by 3 cents last night.

• [By Shane Hupp]

  One Liberty Properties (NYSE: ORC) and Orchid Island Capital (NYSE:ORC) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, earnings, valuation, profitability, risk and dividends.

Top 5 Medical Stocks To Buy For 2019: Aclaris Therapeutics, Inc.(ACRS)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Max Byerly]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Aclaris Therapeutics (ACRS)

  For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Aclaris Therapeutics (ACRS)

  For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com

• [By Max Byerly]

  Aclaris Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ACRS) was downgraded by analysts at Zacks Investment Research from a hold rating to a sell rating. According to Zacks, “Aclaris Therapeutics, Inc. is a specialty pharmaceutical company. The Company is focused on identifying, developing and commercializing drugs to met needs in dermatology. Its drug candidate consists of A-101, a high-concentration hydrogen peroxide topical solution which is being developed as a prescription treatment for seborrheic keratosis a common non-malignant skin tumor and A-102, a proprietary topical gel dosage form of hydrogen peroxide for the treatment of SK and common warts which are in different clinical trial. Aclaris Therapeutics, Inc. is headquartered in Malvern, Pennsylvania. “

• [By Stephan Byrd]

  Headlines about Aclaris Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ACRS) have been trending somewhat positive on Thursday, according to Accern. The research firm identifies positive and negative news coverage by reviewing more than twenty million blog and news sources in real-time. Accern ranks coverage of companies on a scale of -1 to 1, with scores closest to one being the most favorable. Aclaris Therapeutics earned a news sentiment score of 0.10 on Accern’s scale. Accern also gave news articles about the biotechnology company an impact score of 46.9638334424702 out of 100, indicating that recent news coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an effect on the company’s share price in the immediate future.

Top 5 Medical Stocks To Buy For 2019: Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc.(RARE)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Shane Hupp]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical (RARE)

  For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com

• [By Todd Campbell]

  A Genentech alumnus, Conner was previously vice president of clinical science at Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ:RARE), a biotech that has successfully developed therapies for rare and ultrarare diseases. Prior to that, he was senior medical director at BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ:BMRN), another biotech company that's successfully developed drugs for rare diseases.

• [By Shane Hupp]

  Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc (NASDAQ:RARE) Director Matthew K. Fust sold 6,319 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.00, for a total value of $454,968.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 8,750 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $630,000. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

• [By Shane Hupp]

  These are some of the media headlines that may have effected Accern’s scoring:

  Get Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical alerts: Burosumab Improves Outcomes in Children with XLH in Phase 2 Trial (raredr.com) RARE Stock Is on the Verge of Breaking Out Toward Higher Prices (profitconfidential.com) Burosumab may benefit children with X-linked hypophosphatemia (medicalxpress.com) A Look Inside the Quant Data For Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc. (NasdaqGS:RARE) (parkcitycaller.com) Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc. (RARE)- Stock in the Trader’s Radar (nasdaqfortune.com)

  A number of research firms have recently weighed in on RARE. ValuEngine raised Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday. BidaskClub raised Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 19th. Barclays raised Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $62.00 to $74.00 in a report on Friday, May 11th. Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical in a report on Thursday, May 10th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $63.00 target price for the company. Finally, Zacks Investment Research downgraded Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. The company has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $70.06.

Top 5 Medical Stocks To Buy For 2019: Lazard Global Total Return and Income Fund(LGI)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  Headlines about Lazard Global Total Return & Income Fund common stock (NYSE:LGI) have been trending somewhat negative recently, Accern Sentiment Analysis reports. Accern ranks the sentiment of media coverage by monitoring more than 20 million blog and news sources in real time. Accern ranks coverage of public companies on a scale of -1 to 1, with scores closest to one being the most favorable. Lazard Global Total Return & Income Fund common stock earned a news sentiment score of -0.13 on Accern’s scale. Accern also gave media coverage about the company an impact score of 47.0546102091578 out of 100, indicating that recent media coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an effect on the stock’s share price in the next several days.

Top 5 Medical Stocks To Buy For 2019: Empire Resorts Inc.(NYNY)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Stephan Byrd]

  Wendys (NASDAQ: WEN) and Empire Resorts (NASDAQ:NYNY) are both retail/wholesale companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, profitability, analyst recommendations and risk.

Best Clean Energy Stocks To Own Right Now

tags:ARRY,NTRS,JFR, &l;p&g;&l;img class=&q;dam-image bloomberg size-large wp-image-41782461&q; src=&q;https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/dam/imageserve/41782461/960x0.jpg?fit=scale&q; data-height=&q;639&q; data-width=&q;960&q;&g; A wind turbine stands next to solar panels in Japan. Wind and solar are set to provide half of the world&s;s electricity by 2050, says BNEF. Photographer: Buddhika Weerasinghe/Bloomberg

Renewable energy is set to go from strength to strength in coming years and it will be generating 50% of global electricity by 2050, according to one of the most authoritative voices in clean energy.

However, President Trump&a;rsquo;s battle to save the coal industry looks doomed, with coal-powered generation set to make up just 11% of global electricity generation by the middle of the century, down from 38% today, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

Its New Energy Outlook (NEO) 2018 says that the continuing fall in the cost of batteries will massively increase the ability the ability to store off-peak electricity and sell it when demand is high, which will enable renewable technologies &a;ndash; particularly wind and solar projects - to take an increasing share of the electricity market. This will create a $548 billion battery market, with total investment in clean energy between now and 2050 set to reach $11.5 trillion.

Best Clean Energy Stocks To Own Right Now: Array BioPharma Inc.(ARRY)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Max Byerly]

  Swiss National Bank raised its holdings in Array Biopharma Inc (NASDAQ:ARRY) by 5.5% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 325,600 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after acquiring an additional 16,900 shares during the quarter. Swiss National Bank’s holdings in Array Biopharma were worth $5,314,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

• [By Logan Wallace]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Array Biopharma (ARRY)

  For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com

• [By Cory Renauer]

  It looks like the benefit-to-risk ratio is off the charts for larotrectinib as well as LOXO-292, but the number of patients with TRK fusion cancers that fail multiple existing treatments is somewhere between 1,500 and 5,000 each year in the U.S. Investors also need to understand that Loxo Oncology licensed its candidates from Array Biopharma (NASDAQ:ARRY) and owes its partner substantial milestone payments and mid-single-digit royalties on any sales they might generate. Loxo has partnered with Bayer AG (NASDAQOTH:BAYRY), and if approved, the German giant will share U.S. profits with Loxo and pay double-digit royalties on sales abroad.

Best Clean Energy Stocks To Own Right Now: Northern Trust Corporation(NTRS)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Shane Hupp]

  Independent Bank (NASDAQ: NTRS) and Northern Trust (NASDAQ:NTRS) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, earnings, risk, profitability, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and dividends.

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC lessened its stake in Northern Trust Co. (NASDAQ:NTRS) by 2.8% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 292,157 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 8,377 shares during the quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC’s holdings in Northern Trust were worth $30,130,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC decreased its holdings in Northern Trust Co. (NASDAQ:NTRS) by 14.7% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 18,550 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 3,200 shares during the quarter. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC’s holdings in Northern Trust were worth $1,913,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

• [By Shane Hupp]

  Northern Trust (NASDAQ:NTRS) declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan, which authorizes the company to repurchase 25,000,000 shares on Tuesday, July 17th. This repurchase authorization authorizes the asset manager to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Best Clean Energy Stocks To Own Right Now: Nuveen Floating Rate Income Fund(JFR)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Max Byerly]

  Swift Run Capital Management LLC lessened its holdings in Nuveen Floating Rate Inc (NYSE:JFR) by 30.4% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 16,000 shares of the company’s stock after selling 7,000 shares during the quarter. Swift Run Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Nuveen Floating Rate were worth $174,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Nothing Seems to Be Stopping America's Oil Growth Engine

America's oil production continued its unrelenting ascension last month, rising another 90,000 barrels per day (BPD) from December's level to an average of 12 million BPD, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. That has the U.S. on track to produce 12.4 million BPD this year and 13.2 million BPD in 2020, which would obliterate last year's record output of 10.9 million BPD, a number that shattered the previous mark that stood for 48 years.

Fueling America's high-octane oil growth is the Permian Basin, which stretches across parts of western Texas and southeastern New Mexico. That continued output expansion comes even though two notable speed bumps -- lower oil prices and pipeline constraints -- have tried to slow it down.

Image source: Getty Images.

Barely feeling a pinch from lower oil prices

Oil prices rose for most of 2018, which gave drillers incentive to boost spending on new wells, with the bulk of that incremental capital going into the Permian Basin. Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY), for example, added $1.1 billion to its capital budget last year, with all those funds allocated to the Permian Basin. That additional spending enabled Occidental Petroleum to accelerate its growth rate.

However, with oil prices crashing to end 2018, producers are cutting spending. In Occidental Petroleum's case, it's reducing its capital budget by 10% to $4.5 billion. However, even with that spending reduction, Occidental Petroleum is on track to grow its total production 9% to 11% this year -- up from its 5% to 8% long-term target -- including 30%-plus growth out of the Permian.

Meanwhile, WPX Energy (NYSE:WPX) is cutting its 2019 capital budget. The company initially expected to spend between $1.45 billion and $1.65 billion this year, which would have been enough money to grow its U.S. oil volumes 25% to 30% from last year's level. The recent crash in crude prices, however, forced the company to reduce the range to between $1.1 billion and $1.275 billion, which is still enough to increase its output 20% from 2018's average. Overall, the company noted that it's forecasting only a 6% impact on its original production guidance despite a 23% spending reduction.

Image source: Getty Images.

What pipeline constraints?

Another issue affecting Permian producers is dwindling space on pipelines to move crude out of the region. At one point last year, oil companies were pumping 3.3 million BPD out of the Permian but had only about 3.6 million BPD of pipeline space. That bottleneck has eased somewhat in recent months, after Plains All American Pipeline (NYSE:PAA) raced to finish its Sunrise expansion project, which came online in November. Plains All American is also on track to start partial service of its Cactus II pipeline by the third quarter of this year, with full service expected by next April. Meanwhile, Plains All American recently joined forces with ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) and another midstream company to move forward with a new pipeline project, Wink to Webster, which should start up in the first half of 2021. That pipeline is crucial to support ExxonMobil's Permian-focused expansion plans.

Railroads have also been working to fill in the gaps. Union Pacific (NYSE:UNP) signed a deal last year to ship to 400,000 barrels per month through the end of this year to help move crude out of the Permian until new pipelines start service. That decision paid off during the fourth quarter, when Union Pacific's crude oil shipments increased 25% as it helped producers get their oil to higher-priced refining and export markets.

The region's pipeline problems should disappear over the next year, since several new lines will enter service. Not only will Plains All American finish Cactus II, but EPIC Midstream and Phillips 66 Partners will also begin service on their two pipelines by late 2019 to early 2020. Meanwhile, Energy Transfer and several partners should complete the Permian Gulf Coast pipeline by the middle of next year. Those pipelines should enable Permian producers to continue expanding their output at a healthy rate for years to come.

America's oil growth engine is showing no signs of slowing

The U.S. is on track to deliver another record-smashing year of oil production, which will probably make the country the largest crude producer in the world, since both Russia and Saudi Arabia are reducing their output this year in an effort to boost prices. While the recent oil-price slump has forced some U.S. oil companies to cut spending, it isn't having as much impact on their ability to continue growing. Likewise, pipeline constraints aren't hurting, since the industry has found ways to work around the problem until new lines come online later this year. The industry is thus poised to continue growing in the coming years, which could have the greatest positive impact on pipeline companies like Plains All American.

PRO Talks: Leuthold investments strategist Ramsey likes value, overseas stocks

[This video is exclusive content for CNBC PRO subscribers and will appear above this story when logged in.]

Doug Ramsey, the chief investment officer of The Leuthold Group, said U.S. equities may still be in the throes of an extended bear market and he would look to domestic value stocks or even overseas for better investment ideas.

"Out of the last 30 up weeks in the S&P 500, 29 have been led by the Russell 1000 growth over value," Ramsey said during an exclusive interview for CNBC PRO with Mike Santoli. "If you're looking for renewal, refreshment of this market usually there's a turnover in leadership and it's hard to spot necessarily where that would be. I do think there's a good chance, when the real bear arrives, and we may still be in it, you will see a rotation from growth into value."

Investors have wondered why the stock market leadership has yet to shift from successful-but-pricey growth stocks to cheaper value plays tied to the health of the U.S. economy. But even though steep growth valuations may in theory make some investors uncomfortable, convincing investors to put cash into neglected value stocks could require some coaxing. The S&P 500 value stock-tracking ETF, IVE, has lost more than 1 percent over the past 12 months while the IVW, which tracks S&P 500 growth stocks, has gained 4 percent.

The same logic could apply to international equities, Ramsey said, which for years have underperformed U.S. stocks.

"You've had an 11-year run now in domestic over international. The S&P is at a 50 percent price-to-earnings premium to EFA versus a 15 percent discount 12 years ago," the investor said, referring to the iShares MSCI EAFE ETF, which tracks the investment results of a basket of stocks outside the U.S. and Canada.

"If we're still in the same market here, I think domestic will lead it. But when we lapse into a bear, and again there's a good chance I think we're still in one, you should see a rotation over to international."

Top 10 Gold Stocks To Watch Right Now

tags:NXG,ORE,CME,GSS,NGD,

December 14, 2016: Markets opened slightly higher Wednesday but the FOMC announcement set shares below the break-even line in mid-afternoon and they never recovered. Only the tech sector traded (just barely) in the green late in the afternoon and the day’s big losers were utilities, energy and real estate stocks. WTI crude oil for January delivery settled at $51.04 a barrel, down 3.7% on the day. February gold added 0.4% on the day to settle at $1,163.70. Equities were headed for a lower close shortly before the bell as the DJIA traded down 0.41% for the day, the S&P 500 traded down 0.62%, and the Nasdaq Composite traded down 0.28%.

The DJIA stock posting the largest daily percentage loss ahead of the close Wednesday was Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) which traded down 2.22% at $93.89. The stock’s 52-week range is $56.36 to $97.40. Volume was about 20% below the daily average of around 5.3 million shares. The company had no specific news.

Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) traded down 1.87% at $90.85. The stock’s 52-week range is $71.55 to $95.55. Trading volume was about 15% below the daily average of around 11.4 million. The company had no specific news, but the declining crude price took a bite out of the share price.

Top 10 Gold Stocks To Watch Right Now: Northgate Minerals Corporation(NXG)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Shane Hupp]

  Shares of NEX Group PLC (LON:NXG) have been given an average rating of “Hold” by the nine ratings firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have assigned a hold recommendation and four have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is GBX 696 ($9.21).

Top 10 Gold Stocks To Watch Right Now: Orezone Gold Corp (ORE)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Stephan Byrd]

  Galactrum (CURRENCY:ORE) traded 1.7% lower against the U.S. dollar during the 24 hour period ending at 18:00 PM Eastern on August 31st. Galactrum has a total market capitalization of $866,847.00 and approximately $5,272.00 worth of Galactrum was traded on exchanges in the last 24 hours. One Galactrum coin can now be purchased for about $0.42 or 0.00006032 BTC on major exchanges including Stocks.Exchange and Cryptopia. In the last seven days, Galactrum has traded 12.5% higher against the U.S. dollar.

• [By Shane Hupp]

  Galactrum (ORE) is a PoW/PoS coin that uses the
  Lyra2RE hashing algorithm. It was first traded on December 13th, 2017. Galactrum’s total supply is 2,781,952 coins and its circulating supply is 2,061,952 coins. Galactrum’s official website is galactrum.org. Galactrum’s official Twitter account is @galactrum.

• [By Peter Graham]

  Sandstorm's due diligence is thorough, they don't just invest in any company. They like West Africa because they understand the area and the opportunities that exist there. Sandstorm is a royalty and streaming company, so they make these investments and receive cashflow deals that often kick in much later on. But they have already established a presence in Burkina and have deals in place with larger companies like Orezone Gold (TSXV: ORE) and Endeavour Mining (TSX: EDV). Sandstorm's investment also potentially gives us access to their marketing department through something they call Launch Lab, and it looks like it will really benefit our own marketing efforts and will expose us to more opportunities over the coming year.

• [By Stephan Byrd]

  Galactrum (ORE) is a PoW/PoS coin that uses the
  Lyra2RE hashing algorithm. It launched on November 11th, 2017. Galactrum’s total supply is 2,092,679 coins and its circulating supply is 1,372,679 coins. Galactrum’s official Twitter account is @galactrum. Galactrum’s official website is galactrum.org.

• [By Jim Robertson]

  Finally, Richard Seville, the CEO of Brisbane-based Orocobre Ltd (ASX: ORE) which began lithium sales in 2015 from northern Argentina and also experienced difficulty boosting output, commented that an "inability to access traditional funds has delayed the development of the sector" and that "these projects aren't easy -- so the banks just don't want to go there."

Top 10 Gold Stocks To Watch Right Now: CME Group Inc.(CME)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lee Jackson]

  This stock has had a solid 2018 and is a top pick at Deutsche Bank. CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ: CME) exchanges offer the widest range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes, including futures and options. CME brings buyers and sellers together through its Globex electronic trading platform and its trading facilities in New York and Chicago.

• [By Logan Wallace]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on CME Group (CME)

  For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com

• [By Logan Wallace]

  Investors sold shares of CME Group Inc (NASDAQ:CME) on strength during trading hours on Wednesday. $43.03 million flowed into the stock on the tick-up and $84.28 million flowed out of the stock on the tick-down, for a money net flow of $41.25 million out of the stock. Of all stocks tracked, CME Group had the 11th highest net out-flow for the day. CME Group traded up $0.26 for the day and closed at $170.48

• [By Stephan Byrd]

  Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA cut its position in shares of CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) by 1.8% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 445,259 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 7,975 shares during the quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA owned 0.13% of CME Group worth $72,016,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

• [By Chris Hill]

  Gross: I got CME Group (NASDAQ:CME), ticker CME. Operates the world's largest futures and options exchange. They're in a great position to either innovate or acquire assets to grow. They take a little toll for every transaction that goes across their platform. Institutions managing risk, derivatives are more important than ever, which is good for their business. They pay a 3.6% yield, including a special dividend that they typically pay on an annual basis. Trading volumes are skyrocketing. The business is strong.

• [By Max Byerly]

  Deutsche Boerse (OTCMKTS: DBOEY) and CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, dividends, risk and analyst recommendations.

Top 10 Gold Stocks To Watch Right Now: Golden Star Resources Ltd(GSS)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Joseph Griffin]

  Golden Star Resources Ltd. (TSE:GSC) (NYSE:GSS) has been given an average recommendation of “Buy” by the six ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is C$1.48.

• [By Joseph Griffin]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Golden Star Resources (GSS)

  For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com

• [By Max Byerly]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Golden Star Resources (GSS)

  For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com

• [By Max Byerly]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Golden Star Resources (GSS)

  For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com

Top 10 Gold Stocks To Watch Right Now: NEW GOLD INC.(NGD)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Maxx Chatsko]

  Shares of New Gold (NYSEMKT:NGD) fell by over 14% today after the company announced the surprise sale of its Mesquite gold mine. The business will receive $158 million in cash for the productive asset, which management says will "immediately crystallize several years' worth of future free cash flow as part of our strategy to prudently manage our balance sheet, providing the company with the financial flexibility to focus on our core assets".

• [By WWW.GURUFOCUS.COM]

  For the details of Exor Investments (UK) LLP's stock buys and sells, go to http://www.gurufocus.com/StockBuy.php?GuruName=Exor+Investments+%28UK%29+LLP

  These are the top 5 holdings of Exor Investments (UK) LLPSibanye-Stillwater (SBGL) - 45,970,311 shares, 32.51% of the total portfolio. Shares added by 8.09%VEON Ltd (VEON) - 37,657,792 shares, 31.02% of the total portfolio. Shares added by 3.83%Cameco Corp (CCJ) - 5,967,410 shares, 19.32% of the total portfolio. Harmony Gold Mining Co Ltd (HMY) - 13,275,728 shares, 6.26% of the total portfolio. Shares added by 6.84%Novagold Resources Inc (NG) - 5,889,905 shares, 6.21% of the total portfolio. Shares
• [By Paul Ausick]

  New Gold Inc. (NYSEAMERICAN: NGD) dropped about 2.9% Monday to post a new 52-week low of $2.35. Shares closed at $2.42 on Friday and the stock’s 52-week high is $4.25. Volume was about 10% below the daily average of around 5.8 million shares. The gold mining company had no news.

Bandwidth Inc. (BAND) Q4 2018 Earnings Conference Call Transcript

Image source: The Motley Fool.

Bandwidth Inc.  (NASDAQ:BAND)Q4 2018 Earnings Conference CallFeb. 13, 2019, 5:00 p.m. ET

Contents: Prepared Remarks Questions and Answers Call Participants Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Greetings and welcome to Bandwidth Fourth Quarter and Full-Year Earnings Results Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. (Operator Instructions). As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Mr. Marc Griffin. Please go ahead.

Marc Griffin -- Investor Relations

Thank you. And good afternoon, and welcome to Bandwidth fourth quarter and full year 2018 earnings call. Today, we'll be discussing the results announced on our press release issued after the market close.

With me on the call this afternoon is David Morken, Bandwidth's Chief Executive Officer; and Jeff Hoffman, Chief Financial Officer of Bandwidth. They will begin with prepared remarks and then we will open up the call for Q&A.

During the call, we will make statements related to our business that may be considered forward-looking, including statements concerning our financial guidance for the first fiscal quarter of 2019 and full year of 2019, our plans to execute on our growth strategy, our ability to maintain existing and acquiring new customers and other statements regarding our plans and prospects.

Forward-looking statements may often be identified with words, such as, we expect, we anticipate or upcoming. These statements reflect our views only as of today and should not be considered our views as of any subsequent date.

We undertake no obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not promises or guarantees of future performance and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ materially from our expectations.

For a discussion of material risks and other important factors that could affect our actual results, please refer to those contained in our 10-K filing on February 26th, 2018, as updated by other SEC filings, all of which are available on the Investor Relation section of our website at bandwidth.com and on the SEC's website at sec.gov.

Finally, during the course of today's call, we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP measures is included in our press release issued after the market close today, which is located on our website at bandwidth.com and on the SEC's website at sec.gov.

With that, let me turn the call over to David.

David A. Morken -- Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman

Thank you, Marc, and thank you to everyone joining us on our fourth quarter and full year 2018 earnings call. Since we are reporting results for our first full year as a public Company, I want to begin by thanking God, all our BAND-mates and their families, our customers, and current investors. We are proud that we delivered an excellent first full year as a public Company, and no, it was only possible because of the creative work and commitment of many people including those on this call.

We are also excited to finish the year so strong with our fourth quarter performance, well above our guidance. During this past year, we achieved remarkable results by serving our enterprise customers well. Our total revenue for the year exceeded $200 million. We ended this past quarter with 26% CPaaS revenue growth year-over-year.

Our solid results continued to be driven by expanding our relationships with existing enterprise customers. Demand for our services has been solid throughout the year and in the fourth quarter was again driven by a diverse set of customers using a full breadth of our offerings. Our unique combination of software APIs and a nationwide vertically integrated all-IP voice network resonates clearly with enterprise customers.

During our fourth quarter, we developed deeper relationships with existing customers and had several notable new customer wins. For example, an existing customer who is a fast-growing leader in modern enterprise video and voice conferencing and who provides services to clients such as Uber, Slack, Sonos and many others recently announced a Cloud phone system solution that will be available nationwide in 2019.

Bandwidth's APIs already powered the voice calling components of the Company's video conferencing platform and we are excited that they will be using us to power their next generation enterprise cloud phone system solution.

Our software platform is well-suited for creative teams such as this one to launch and scale dynamic voice experiences. Enterprises do not have to choose between speed and high-quality voice and messaging. The functionality of our APIs and the stability of our IP voice network give them both.

During the quarter we also started a new relationship with one of the fastest growing cloud strategy company that serves more than 1,500 enterprises, including many of the world's most recognizable brands. The Company offers enterprises, cloud communication solutions including cloud contact centers, cloud phone systems, and unified communication services.

Experiencing explosive growth, the Company was looking for a provider that could effectively and efficiently scale with their business. Bandwidth met their criteria as a single platform that could deliver a complete communication suite. Our flexible voice, messaging, and 911 APIs enable the customer to develop their services rapidly, reliably and at excellent economic value at scale.

And as is often the case among large enterprises, who work with us, this customer placed a premium on our exceptional, dedicated enterprise customer support. Changes in the messaging industry are driving more demand for Bandwidth's enterprise messaging services. Wireless carriers are sunsetting shared short code messaging and developing new solutions to balance the urgent need to protect consumers from unwanted messages with reliable deliverability by filtering, blocking and raising rates.

Bandwidth's enterprise solution, which enables application to person messaging on toll-free numbers is available today, is designed to protect consumers from spam and is not impacted by these impending industry changes.

Unlike short codes, which enable only one way messaging to a customer, our service enables full customer engagement with two-way text messaging and voice communications. During the fourth quarter, we saw strong enterprise interest in our enterprise grade, A2P, Toll-Free SMS. We added a large new customer that provides a customer loyalty and marketing platform to 14,000 local businesses in more than 30 million people. The Company was previously experiencing deliverability issues with short codes for customer loyalty programs within their rapidly growing user community.

The Company will now use Bandwidth's enterprise Toll-Free SMS solution and toll-free numbers to empower their merchant, customers to engage in full loyalty program conversations with end users. Our messaging products offer dedicated throughput, high economic value at scale, and excellent customer support.

I want to now turn to the investments we made to expand our team in 2018. During last year, 233 new BAND mates joined us from many local and national software and technology companies. We grew our team by 62% from 378 to 611.

We more than doubled our sales and marketing team from 63 to 150, which now includes 45 Enterprise hunters and eight strategic sales reps.

In addition, we expanded our sales and marketing team by adding more lead development reps to directly support our inside sales representatives. During 2018, we also grew both our technology and our R&D teams from 66 to 156 to develop and broaden our platform and meet growing market demand.

The majority of these hires were software developers and engineers, who will accelerate the launch of planned services on our platform. In 2019, we will expand our toll-free voice platform and network to add many new call management capabilities. This will allow us to better serve our customers, especially those with contact center applications.

We also plan to expand our platform's messaging capabilities to include additional A2P services, which will assist our customers who are increasingly using messaging within their customer engagement strategy.

Furthermore, we plan to expand our platform's emergency call APIs to support mobile workforce use cases by enabling real time notifications of location-specific emergencies. These enhancements support both regulatory compliance and our enterprise customers' need to direct first responders quickly and precisely.

Last, we plan to continually improve our platform's fraud and detection capabilities and will continue with others to lead the industry's effort to combat fraudulent robocalling.

I'd now like to take a moment to reiterate our mission to develop and deliver the power to communicate. This past year, marked our tenth year building the future of voice. The software platform and nationwide network we built has become the foundation on which the greatest creative teams launch and scale dynamic voice experiences.

IDC estimates that the global CPaaS market opportunity will grow from $2 billion in 2017 to $10.9 billion by 2022. Communications have reached a tipping point as enterprises are harnessing software powered voice and messaging to meet customer expectations and fulfill mission critical customer experiences.

The enterprise is rapidly embedding voice messaging and 911 into applications we use everyday where we live, work and play. Bandwidth continues to be well-positioned to meet the end-to-end needs of our enterprise customers. We are growing our customer base, expanding our existing relationships, selling to new organizations, innovating with our platform and developing our international offerings.

And regarding international, during 2018, our international strategy was to recruit great leadership and to work with our largest customers to validate and model the legal, regulatory and commercial assumptions required for serving them well in their highest demand countries.

We spent a year learning how we could expand our domestic platform and IP voice infrastructure in other countries to support this growth with higher reliability, larger scale, and greater economic value for our customers.

And today, we are excited to announce that we have reached an agreement in principle with one of our largest voice customers to expand our platform and network into the UK and the EU to support an important product launch. We expect to begin providing the service by the end of the first quarter and we will continue to scale throughout 2019.

I am very pleased with the progress of our international team. We now have a better understanding of the opportunities and challenges for important services in the highest usage countries and have moved from exploring to executing or said differently, BAND's world tour has officially begun.

Overall, 2018 was a great year for Bandwidth. Once again, thank you to those who have been most responsible for our continued success. To our many customers and our investors, thank you for your continued trust. To our BAND mates, many of who joined us during the year, thank you for your commitment to each other, to our customers and to your creative work. I'm extremely proud of everything we've accomplished in 2018. We are committed to achieving our objectives together in 2019 and beyond.

With that, let me turn the call over to Jeff.

Jeff Hoffman -- Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, David, and good afternoon to everyone on the call. Today, I will review our fourth quarter 2018 financial results according to the historical revenue recognition standard of ASC 605. In addition, we will discuss our financial guidance for the first quarter and the full year 2019, according to the new standard ASC 606.

As an emerging growth Company, we are adopting 606 starting January 1st, 2019 under the modified retrospective method and do not expect any material changes to our revenue recognition nor our sales commissions accounting.

Based on our evaluation to date, we expect the revenue related impact to result in a reduction to retained earnings between approximately $100,000 and $200,000. Our fourth quarter was an outstanding finish to a great year, and as David mentioned earlier, we are pleased to report that we once again exceeded the high-end of all of our guiding metrics.

We continue to see good momentum across our entire product line and over a diverse set of enterprise customers. We believe this is a testament to the high value our customers place on the combination of our software and network platform as well as our team's enduring commitment to delivering world-class customer service.

During the fourth quarter, our total revenue was $52.3 million, up 23% year-over-year and $2.7 million above the high-end of our guidance range. Within total revenue, CPaaS revenue was $44.1 million, up 26% year-over-year and $1.5 million above the high end of our guidance range. Other revenue contributed the remaining $8.2 million of total revenue, which was $1.2 million above our implied guidance and more than the $7.5 million from the fourth quarter of 2017 due to higher indirect revenues.

Our 121% dollar-based net retention rate in the fourth quarter was our best yet as a public company and is well above the 111% we achieved in the fourth quarter of 2017. On average, our enterprise customers continue to spend $150,000 with us annually. We ended the fourth quarter with 1,230 active CPaaS customers, up 75 sequentially from the end of third quarter. Active CPaaS customers increased 27% year-over-year, which was the highest level of growth recorded during the year.

The acceleration in customer adds is due to robust demand for our offering and early indicators of payback on our increased investments in sales.

Before moving on to profitability metrics, I would like to call out that I will be discussing non-GAAP results going forward. Our GAAP financial results along with the full reconciliation between GAAP and non-GAAP results can be found in our earnings release. Our non-GAAP gross profit, which excludes stock-based compensation and depreciation was $24.9 million, yielding a gross margin of 48% for the fourth quarter of 2018, as compared to the $20.7 million and the 49% gross margin we achieved in the fourth quarter of 2017.

The slight change in gross margin is primarily due to the timing of investments in the fourth quarter of 2018, as we continue to expand the reach and scale of our platform. Fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $0.1 million compared to $4.4 million of adjusted EBITDA for the same period last year, which reflects the increased investments we have made in research and development and sales and marketing to support our long-term growth objectives.

On a GAAP basis, we reported a net loss of $1.3 million or $0.07 per share based on $18.4 million weighted average basic shares outstanding during the fourth quarter of 2018.

Our non-GAAP net loss in the fourth quarter was $0.8 million or a loss of $0.04 per share based on $18.4 million weighted average basic shares outstanding. This is well above our guidance for the fourth quarter of a net loss of $0.28 to $0.30 per share.

The favorable non-GAAP net loss variance as compared to our guidance was primarily driven by gross profit and operating expense outperformance. During the quarter, we generated $0.6 million in net cash from operations and utilized $5.4 million in free cash flow, which includes $6 million of purchases of property and equipment as well as capitalized software development costs for internal use.

Turning to a quick summary of the financial results for the full-year 2018, total revenue was $204.1 million, up 25% year-over-year. Within total revenue, CPaaS revenue was $164.4 million, also up 25% year-over-year. The fundamentals of our business proved strong during a year of higher investment as we expanded our non-GAAP total gross margins from 48% to 49%.

During 2018, adjusted EBITDA was $16.1 million and non-GAAP net income was $9 million or $0.43 per share based on 21.1 million weighted average diluted shares outstanding. Turning to the balance sheet, as of December 31st, 2018, Bandwidth had cash and equivalents plus marketable securities of $58.7 million.

Now, I'd like to finish with some thoughts regarding our financial outlook. In terms of CPaaS revenue, we expect the full-year of 2019 to be in the range of $201 million to $203 million or up 23% at the midpoint of the range. We expect total revenue for 2019 to be in the range of $231.5 million to $233.5 million, up 14% at the midpoint of the range.

I want to remind everyone that other revenue in 2018 benefited from a $6.3 million one-time favorable impact related to the Verizon settlement. If we normalize for this one-time impact, total revenue for 2019 would be up 18% at the midpoint of the range. In addition to indirect revenue, other revenue includes our legacy services, which are expected to continue their slow decline in 2019.

We are excited about the opportunity in front of us and we plan to continue our investment strategy to scale our CPaaS business in 2019. The investments in our platform coupled with ongoing economies of scale and network effects will allow us to expand CPaaS gross margins in 2019.

Total gross margin in 2018 benefited from the aforementioned one-time $6.3 million settlement that flowed directly to our bottom line. We expect to achieve total gross margins consistent with 2018 by expanding CPaaS margins in the coming year, which should virtually offset the lack of one-time benefit from the Verizon settlement in 2019.

As a result, non-GAAP earnings per share for 2019 is expected to be in the range of approximately a loss of $0.64 to $0.74 per share. This outlook assumes weighted average shares outstanding of approximately $19.9 million.

Turning to our guidance for the first quarter of 2019, we expect CPaaS revenue to be in the range of $43.5 million to $44 million or up 13% year-over-year at the midpoint of the range at $43.8 million. This contributes to our total revenue guidance of $51 million to $51.5 million.

I now want to provide some additional color to put our view of first quarter CPaaS revenue guidance in perspective. We are facing a challenging year-over-year comparison in the first quarter given our strong performance in the first quarter of 2018, which benefited from a high concentration of customers scaling on our platform in a single quarter.

As you will recall, our CPaaS sequential revenue growth in the first quarter of 2018 was approximately $4 million, an all-time high, which is more than double the average sequential revenue growth of approximately $1.7 million we have experienced over the last eight quarters.

If we adjust for this outsized performance in the first quarter of 2018, CPaaS revenue for the first quarter of 2019 would be expected to be up 19% at the midpoint of the range. Most importantly, when you consider that our full year CPaaS revenue growth guidance is 23% at the midpoint, compared to 13% for the first quarter, it is clear that we expect year-over-year growth to reaccelerate in the second quarter through year-end 2019.

As we have discussed in the past, we have high visibility into our revenue growth since it is derived primarily from our existing customer base. In addition, we expect to see benefit from the increased pace of acquisition that we began to see in the fourth quarter of 2018 and we are excited about the favorable impact of our larger sales force coming to full productivity throughout 2019.

Turning to the first quarter profitability. Non-GAAP earnings per share is expected to be in a loss in the range of $0.27 to $0.30 per share. This outlook assumes weighted average basic shares outstanding of approximately 19.8 million.

In conclusion, we are very pleased with our 2018 performance. Our business fundamentals are strong. Bandwidth continues to be well positioned to capture an expanding CPaaS market as enterprises continue to embed voice, messaging, and 911 to deliver connected experiences that are core to the mission of these enterprise customers.

With that, I will now hand the call back to the operator for the Q&A portion of the call.

Questions and Answers:

Operator

At this time, we'll be conducting a question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions). Our first question comes from the line of Brent Bracelin with KeyBanc. Please proceed with your question.

Brent Bracelin -- KeyBanc Capital Markets -- Analyst

Thanks for taking the question and I'd love to maybe start with you, David here. If I look at kind of just the Q4 kind of results, it looks like you've beat the midpoint of CPaaS by close to $2 million. Yeah, it looks like a lot of that came from the best net retention rate in over two, three years.

So as you think about the drivers of your existing customer base, the consumption pattern you are seeing, did you see kind of a one-time benefit from mid-term elections? Was there other factors that drove it? Help us understand the drivers of the strength here in Q4, I have several other questions. Thanks.

David A. Morken -- Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman

You bet, Brent. The growth in Q4 was broad-based. We did add as Jeff mentioned 75 new customers during the quarter, but of course they take time to ramp. So Dubner (ph) was, as you said high but the breadth of the growth is what was most characteristic of the quarter and no spikes to call out.

The election certainly does lift boats some, but it's primarily messaging, I think in its emphasis, and for us, there is a lift, but it doesn't explain the overall increase.

Brent Bracelin -- KeyBanc Capital Markets -- Analyst

Got it. And then, Jeff, as we think about just the CPaaS guide, I obviously, I looked back at the dollar change in your CPaaS business, clearly a big spike there $3.9 million sequential increase in Q1 of last year, so I get the tough compare, but it also implies in order to get to 23% growth for the full year, you're going to have some big step-ups in the CPaaS business in Q2, Q3 and Q4 to get to the 23% growth, and so I guess my question is, what's the line of sight that you have to a step up in Q2, Q3? Is it tied to the new customer win and rollout of the cloud phone system. Just trying to understand the tough (ph) comparing Q1 and then what gives you confidence you will see a big step up here in Q2, Q3, Q4? Thanks.

Jeff Hoffman -- Chief Financial Officer

Sure. Thanks for the question, Brent. Our plan in 2019, late 2018 is rooted in serving our customers well and expanding our enterprise relationships. But at the same time, we expect a more meaningful contribution from our larger sales force this year due to the investments that we made in 2018. We expect new customer sales to increase in 2019 in a cascading fashion as each quarterly new sales rep cohort comes online and reaches full productivity. The combination of these two factors then forms the 23% CPaaS revenue guide and implies for that last three quarters that will grow in those quarters at an average of 26%.

Brent Bracelin -- KeyBanc Capital Markets -- Analyst

Got it. That's helpful color. So it sounds like you're literally looking for those sales investments to help pay off, and then as we think about the net dollar retention, would you expect that to moderate some, or you know, could you talk maybe about pricing as we think about the pricing change of the business? Clearly I get new sales in the ramp and we're getting very good visibility there, but I also want to understand your thinking around what you've baked in around net retention rates within the existing installed base?

Jeff Hoffman -- Chief Financial Officer

Sure. So our pricing has remained very consistent. So I don't think there's anything new there to report. Certainly in the first quarter for all the things that we've already discussed, we would expect a lower dollar based net retention rate, but for the rest of the year, again that's a really important part of our growth. One of the things that we always emphasize with folks like you is that you know, our growth is not always linear and it can fluctuate a little bit from quarter-to-quarter, which is why we as a team will focus on annual trends, but we expect to continue to expand the relationships with our customers and serve them well, and so, we expect strong retention rates.

Brent Bracelin -- KeyBanc Capital Markets -- Analyst

Great. My last question is for you, David here, will -- I got to ask on the world tour here, now that you're kicking that off, it sounds like you have secured an anchor tenant. Is that correct and does that help absorb some of the capital costs that you could burden here in the short run? Thanks.

David A. Morken -- Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman

That -- you got it, Brent. That is correct. We've got an anchor tenant. And we have a relationship with them that reduces our exposure to the expense that we incur as we serve internationally as opposed to building something pristine with no customers involved, that was orientation during the last year we learned and we're excited to begin the world tour.

Brent Bracelin -- KeyBanc Capital Markets -- Analyst

Great, thank you. That's all I had. Thanks.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Richard Davis with Canaccord Genuity. Please proceed with your question.

D.J. Hynes -- Canaccord Genuity Limited -- Analyst

Hi, thanks guys. It's actually D.J. Hynes on the line for Richard. Congrats on all the good news. Maybe just piggybacking off of Brent's last question there on international. Can you talk about the gross margin impact as you move internationally? Will that have a materially different profile than the core business? And just help us think about kind of some of the upfront costs involved in kind of building out that effort?

Jeff Hoffman -- Chief Financial Officer

Sure, D.J. This is Jeff. I'll start, and then if David wants to fill in, he can. So it's still very nascent for us as we look into international, product matters here. I think the more messaging we do just like domestically, that's a little bit higher margin for us than it is voice and we're certainly starting out in new territories, and so the gross margin will be influenced by the size and number of investments that we make, it will also over time as that scales will benefit from economies of scale and network effects that we have and so initially the margins could potentially be a little bit lower, but we expect them to grow over time, but we obviously still have a very material base here in the US, and that's what will be the largest influencer of our gross margins.

David A. Morken -- Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman

Thanks, Jeff and DJ, I would just add that, over the last year, what we've articulated is the desire to understand how we can deploy infrastructure for our platform and are all-IP voice networks to be more reliable for customers that are doing international service as well as a better economic value. So we're trying to replicate the value of the asset-based combination that we have in the US, and that's our goal.

D.J. Hynes -- Canaccord Genuity Limited -- Analyst

Yes. So the higher losses in '19 implicit in the guidance, is that a result of now just bearing the cost of the investments that you made in 2018, you know, you talked about that the growth in the headcount and the sales infrastructure build out? Or is that more being driven by some of these newer international expansion efforts?

David A. Morken -- Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman

The short answer D.J. is all of the above within there, but one of the things that is new to our guidance here, because we now have more clarity of a plan is the international investment, and you could think of that sort of in the call it $5 million to $6 million range in our 2019 plan that's within OpEx or certainly also some CapEx included in there as well, and then really the other piece is, when you look at our OpEx growth, we continue to want to reinforce our success that we've had in hiring sales and marketing folks and also research and development and to the extent that we need to -- our folks that are classified in G&A, and so the plan all along has been to make '18 and '19 investment years, I think our plan shows that, but just to bring it full circle, international sort of the new ad in here that we have that informs both non-GAAP net loss and our EPS.

D.J. Hynes -- Canaccord Genuity Limited -- Analyst

Yeah, OK. Yeah, quantifying that spend is helpful. One last one if I may, so have you seen any change in the mix of B2B call volumes versus what I guess I would call B2C or IoT driven calls? And I guess as part of that answer, can you talk about the margin differences you may see between those two -- I'm assuming that you can kind of leverage off peak hours with some of that B2C IoT traffic. Is that a fair assumption? And any color you could give would be helpful.

David A. Morken -- Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman

So to the extent that we serve voice as an interface consumer devices to answer your question, we've seen a very steady drumbeat in the quantity of calling across new interface customers that we work with and indeed much of that calling does occur after normal business hours, and so there are aspects of a fixed-cost network and platform that offset that new call pattern favorably as it relates to having a fixed cost. Does that answer your question?

D.J. Hynes -- Canaccord Genuity Limited -- Analyst

Yeah, it does. So that doesn't sound like a discernible mix shift, but you're seeing nice traction with the new interface devices?

David A. Morken -- Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman

Yeah. I wouldn't go so far as to answer the specific around the mix of traffic between B2B and B2C. What I -- what we are seeing is a steady drumbeat of adoption where we serve folks in the consumer space, who are doing creative new experiences in the home, some of which are voice as an interface, but not ready to comment on the absolute shift across those two categories.

D.J. Hynes -- Canaccord Genuity Limited -- Analyst

Very good. That's perfect. Thanks, guys, congrats.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Meta Marshall with Morgan Stanley. Please proceed with your question.

Meta A. Marshall -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst

Great, thanks guys. I just wanted to get a sense of, obviously, you guys are starting to see some traction with the new salespeople and just if there was anything around kind of a size of what their initial year of -- what their spend was kind of in the initial year or just kind of whether these customers were off the original targeting list, just some kind of context around some of the normal course, the average customer.

And then second just kind of circling back to the gross margins, you guys have been, I understand it's some of the international piece on gross margins, but you've been making some investments, and you were expecting to get some leverage in 2019, and so I just wanted to get a sense of, what we should expect as far as those investments? Thanks.

David A. Morken -- Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman

You bet, Meta, this is David. Just as a quick reminder, on your first question, we have two distinct sales groups. We have our Hunter enterprise team and then a strategic team, and to answer your question, the Hunter team, they will take 90 days to ramp after joining and we expect them to close 1.9 new enterprise customers per month thereafter at full quota.

That customer within their first 12 months after onboarding will in that first 12-month period generate $20,000 of annual revenue, in the second year $30,000, in the third year $40,000 and when you combine that with the other large customers, our average is $150,000 annually.

On the strategic side, those reps take nine months to close their first deal. Their first strategic customer will generate $500,000 of annual revenue within their first year on our platform. And those reps are closing about 1 to 1.1 (ph) or 1.2 (ph) large deals a year.

And then your second part of your question was gross margin and I'll turn it over to Jeff for that one.

Jeff Hoffman -- Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, David. Hi Meta. So yeah, despite our higher level of investment in 2018, our track record of growing gross margin year-over-year continued, so we achieved 49% in '18, which was 140 basis point improvement over 2017. As we've discussed there's a number of factors that affect our gross margin. Certainly, the level of investment and we've been very explicit in saying we're investing more in '18 and '19 to expand the reach and scale of our platform, we do that with the platform and with the team, product mix influences it, certainly one-time events like we experienced in '18 and the Verizon settlement influenced that, but on a longer-term basis, the great positive tailwind that we have is economies of scale and network effects and we enjoy that as a result of our vertically integrated platform and enjoying owner economics, and so when you balance all those things in with again another heavier load of investments and certainly getting some yield on those the '18 investments in '19, but on balance, we would expect our gross margins in '19 to be virtually in line and consistent with what we saw in 2018.

Now in the future, as we sort of grow out of that, we would expect gross margins to continue to enhance and David and I still believe along with the rest of the team that this is a 60% margin business, we've just got to get through some scale and demonstrate some more operating leverage.

Meta A. Marshall -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst

Let's start (ph) going back to that real quick, like when you're saying solid or steady gross margins from '18 and '19 are you talking about CPaaS gross margins or overall gross margins?

Jeff Hoffman -- Chief Financial Officer

That's overall gross margin, so what's going to happen in '19 is you're going to see CPaaS margins grow, and you're starting to see as we do have some additional scale there, the economies of scale and network effects come into play there, so we will expect that to grow, where we'll actually reduce margin is on the other side of the business, which is less than 20% of our revenue, and the reason is this the one-time Verizon settlement that happened in '18 will not reoccur in 2019, and so the blending of those two impacts put us at a flattish sort of level for this year.

Meta A. Marshall -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst

Got it. No, I just wanted to clarify. Great, thanks guys.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Pat Walravens with JMP Group. Please proceed with your question.

Patrick D. Walravens -- JMP Group -- Analyst

Oh, great. Thank you and congratulations to you guys. That's really impressive. So Dave, I once heard you say that you would rather grow 20% for 20 years than 40% for four, and as I look at what you guys are doing, 26% CPaaS growth this quarter guidance to 23% for next year, a lot of investments, the big question investors have for me is, is this going to accelerate out of sort of the current growth range at some point? What would you say?

David A. Morken -- Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman

Well, I would -- thank -- by the way, thank you for your kind words, Pat. The beat goes on. I would say that those investments as we have made in sales and marketing, if they are successful investments, those individual contributors on a per headcount basis should fuel our growth, and we have grown from 12% CPaaS growth in 2017 to 25% CPaaS growth that we've just done, and so we've doubled in 2018 and if our sales investments don't increase our growth, I have failed as a leader. That's the short answer.

Patrick D. Walravens -- JMP Group -- Analyst

All right. Great. Thank you. And my second question is just with, -- so you have what an impressive increase in the number of R&D people? What is their top priority today?

David A. Morken -- Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman

Expand the platform both breadth and depth, capacity in terms of throughput to support the growth of both messaging and voice as well as incremental use cases that are being asked for by our enterprise customers. There's also some international development work to be effective across different jurisdictions.

But the focus is on the platform and making sure that the network keeps up with the growth that we're experiencing.

Patrick D. Walravens -- JMP Group -- Analyst

Awesome. Thank you.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Catharine Trebnick with Dougherty. Please proceed with your question.

Catharine Trebnick -- Dougherty & Company LLC -- Analyst

Congratulations on the quarter. So, I just need to drill in on the guide here, just to make sure I understand what you're saying. So it looks like for Q1, The Street was at loss of $0.12 you're guiding to $0.27 to $0.30 and for the full year at $0.64 to $0.74, Street was at $0.46. So can I, do we attribute, how much of that is attributed to this international expansion, and how much of that is a drag?

David A. Morken -- Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman

Yes. So as far as the annual earnings per share, Catharine, there is a sort of a new entrant into our guidance here, and we talked a little bit about this with D.J.'s question which was, we're adding to our forecast in the range of $5 million to $6 million for international that's hitting OpEx as well as some additional CapEx to get us going with this flagship customer that David had talked about, and then we'll add from there and so that is the primary difference to it.

If you look at it, everything else in The Street rev is above where The Street was gross profit is above, I think OpEx is generally in line, absent the investment that we're making in international, but we believe once again that this is the year to make those investments and expand and will help us grow and scale in the future.

Catharine Trebnick -- Dougherty & Company LLC -- Analyst

So when we think about modeling means, we think that this will be more of a back-end loaded year with sales guys, it seems like you hired most of them in Q3 and Q4, majority of them. So should we think of this more as maybe a 45-55 split, when we model up the top line revenue or how should we look at that?

David A. Morken -- Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman

I think that's fair. Our intent and what we have performed in '18 was our hiring was pretty consistent throughout all the year, but there is a cascading impact into 2019 as each cohort comes online and gets to full productivity. So the effect of that is, is that it is a little bit more back weighted with that, but that all underlines the foundation of us serving our existing customers well and expanding our relationships there, but I think you're generally on track.

Catharine Trebnick -- Dougherty & Company LLC -- Analyst

Okay, good. And then the other question I had, just usually you have a couple of interesting nuggets on new customers, any of the current existing large Internet giants, any interesting new app use cases I'd say came on board with during the quarter?

David A. Morken -- Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman

None that we announced publicly, so no, Catharine, there's nothing that we've announced publicly.

Catharine Trebnick -- Dougherty & Company LLC -- Analyst

I was just trying to pull something.

Jeff Hoffman -- Chief Financial Officer

(inaudible) no names basis though, captain David did highlight three or four use cases, so again to the use (ph) that you might leverage if that's helpful.

Catharine Trebnick -- Dougherty & Company LLC -- Analyst

Oh, no. I was just trying to find -- last time you talked about Google, I was just looking for some other color there. Thank you very much.

David A. Morken -- Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman

Thank you, Catharine.

Jeff Hoffman -- Chief Financial Officer

Thanks.

Operator

Our final question comes from the line of Will Power with Baird. Please proceed with your question.

William Power -- Robert W. Baird -- Analyst

Great, thanks. Yeah, well, congratulations on the international part -- progress, I know that's been a big focus for a while. I guess maybe several questions on that front, David can you just help us understand architecturally how that will look like versus the US soft switches, access to phone numbers, how many countries will you be up and running in, out of the gate? That's the first question.

And then what does the -- what do the CapEx requirements look like? And my other question is with regard to revenue contribution, how do we think about revenue contribution in '19 as it pertains to the overall guidance? Thanks.

David A. Morken -- Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman

You bet, Will. I'll talk about the strategy and the architecture and what we're trying to achieve and then turn it over to Jeff to talk about margin and revenue contribution. What's most important to keep in mind is that internationally, what we're going to deploy is a stack that replicates the same architecture that we maintain in the US. So the gear that we put in a data center supports all IP, voice and messaging services, and it's a great extension of an operating team that knows how to administer, maintain and support that gear in multiple data centers.

And as a result of putting that gear in multiple replicated data centers, you're able to offer high reliability. Yes, you do cross connect and interconnect with incumbent service providers under key regulatory licenses that you're able to achieve or by commercial agreement as well.

And that's what allows you to do, whether it's emergency voice calling in a jurisdiction or just regular voice services, you've got the ability with this gear and the right interconnects and the right regulatory approvals, what you're trying to do is lower your cost structure and get it to be as close as what you've done in the United States at the same level of reliability in the United States, and so the value under the platform for our large enterprise customers, many of whom are domiciled here in the US is it for their product teams they already know how to use -- utilize our platform, we just added a new jurisdiction.

It has all the hallmarks and characteristics of the quality and the cost that they've come to understand domestically to the best of our ability to replicate, that's the model, that's the desire. Be the easy button, not just in the US but in other jurisdictions. We've been able to achieve a very high level of quality and great economic value for the customers that we have using the platform today in the US and we're targeting to do the same thing, focused on the UK and EU as I mentioned, those are the jurisdictions of highest volume where we are supporting our lighthouse customer and after that we'll prioritize based on customer need and demand, but the underlying infrastructure and architecture is precisely the same design that we've really scaled well in the United States. And then I'll turn it over to Jeff.

Jeff Hoffman -- Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, David. Hi, Will. I would just emphasize that we are still early days despite the articulate plan David laid out, it takes a while for revenue to come and of course expenses precede revenue, and so our guidance is not overly reliant on international at all in 2019. In terms of CapEx and the spend, we had already talked about the OpEx contribution, but in terms of CapEx, I would think about this in a 3% of revenue range for CapEx in the initial international build out.

As a reminder, what we've guided everyone is domestically, our CapEx is 7% of revenue. This would be an additional call it 3% or so on top of that, so overall CapEx for 2019 coming in the 10% range and that's how we see it, we're very excited about this sort of greenfield opportunity so to speak, and we look forward to serving customers in new jurisdictions.

William Power -- Robert W. Baird -- Analyst

Yeah. It sounds like a nice opportunity. Good luck for that.

David A. Morken -- Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman

Thank you, Will.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes our question-and-answer session as well as our call. We thank you for your participation and have a wonderful day. You may now disconnect.

Duration: 49 minutes

Call participants:

Marc Griffin -- Investor Relations

David A. Morken -- Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman

Jeff Hoffman -- Chief Financial Officer

Brent Bracelin -- KeyBanc Capital Markets -- Analyst

D.J. Hynes -- Canaccord Genuity Limited -- Analyst

Meta A. Marshall -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst

Patrick D. Walravens -- JMP Group -- Analyst

Catharine Trebnick -- Dougherty & Company LLC -- Analyst

William Power -- Robert W. Baird -- Analyst

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