Leading specialty injectables and infusion pump manufacturer Hospira has suffered greatly from largely self-inflicted wounds over the past couple of years. A lackadaisical approach to proper plant management has led to numerous FDA warning letters at key plants and a shipment freeze on the company's pumps. Yet, Hospira remains the largest player in an industry that has attractive gross margins, significant barriers to entry, and frequent supply shortages.

Hospira seems to be on the road back, and seems to be taking seriously both the need to comply with the FDA regulations and the need to augment its long-term growth potential. The problem is that it looks like Wall Street is already many steps down that road in terms of rewarding the company with a robust valuation.

Specialty injectables can offer growth and value
Hospira is the largest player in the specialty injectables market, a sub-sector of the generics market. With almost one-third of the market by volume, Hospira is considerably larger than Fresenius, Hikma, and Pfizer, though the shares shift a bit when you consider the value of the products.

Unlike the "regular" generics market, injectables are harder to manufacture, and that constitutes a meaningful barrier to entry. It is not uncommon, then, for companies like Hospira, Fresenius, or Hikma to have 50%-plus market share in particular products, with appealing gross margins. It is also not uncommon for there to be significant shortages; with relatively few manufacturers for any given product, manufacturing problems at one or two companies can create shortages, and there have been upwards of 100 shortages per year in injectables in the U.S. in recent years.

As of the last analyst day, Hospira has a pipeline of almost 80 molecules with branded sales value of $17 billion, with about 80% of these expected to launch over the next five years. Hospira is also looking to take this expertise and apply it to the manufacture of biosimilars - generic versions of biological products like antibodies. Through a partnership with Celltrion, Hospira is looking to develop biosimilar versions for major drugs like Remicade.

The pump market is appealing, but Hospira must do better
With CareFusion , Baxter , and B. Braun, Hospira is a major player in the infusion oligopoly. Management believes that Hospira has about 25% of the pump market (CareFusion is likely the leader with around 40%, and Baxter seems to be in the high 20%'s), a market where five-year replacement cycles are complemented with the sale of high-margin consumables. With Baxter, Hospira is also one of the leading sellers of IV solutions, a synergistic business for both of these pump manufacturers.

CareFusion and Baxter have been benefiting from Hospira's self-inflicted manufacturing and management issues. Not only did the company face a recall of its Symbiq pump some time ago, problems at its Lake Forest and Costa Rica plants led to shipment holds on the company's pumps (basically taking them out of the market). Hospira has been trying to transition customers to its Sapphire pump (manufactured by a different company), and is looking forward to sales of the newer Plum A+ and Plum 360 pumps down the line, but these manufacturing issues must be resolved.

The good news for Hospira is that quality control issues are seemingly endemic to the infusion pump business. With that, CareFusion and Baxter have gained share on Hospira due to these issues, but history says that they will have to be careful not to run into their own problems down the line.

Major FDA issues still not entirely resolved
Most large companies in the med-tech or pharmaceutical space eventually run afoul of the FDA, but Hospira has had uncommonly serious problems. The FDA made repeat observations of violations at the company's Rocky Mount, NC (responsible for about one-quarter of the company's injectables volume) and Austin, TX plants, citing "serious, systemic" problems.

It looks like the company is on the back half of this issue, though, as the FDA recently changed the status of the Rocky Mount and Austin plants to "Voluntary Action Indicated", meaning that they have not been cleared (FDA reinspections should occur around midyear), but the company can now get FDA approvals for new products manufactured at those plants.

Looking to a better future
Hospira has had a bad run of late in terms of financial performance, but the past doesn't have to be indicative of the future. There is no obvious reason as to why the company cannot achieve management's goal of long-term gross margins of 45%, nor continue to reap significant growth from its injectables business through generic launches and biosimilars. The infusion/medication management business is not likely to be high-growth (though there could be some "catch up" share gains), but it should produce consistent and attractive cash flow.

With that, an estimate of 6% long-term revenue growth seems appropriate, with free cash flow margins rising back into the low teens (and 10% free cash flow margins in 2018 a real possibility).

The bottom line
All of the above is fine, but the Street has already embraced the Hospira comeback story. Even if you look past the company's FDA issues and give it an advantaged discount rate to reflect its market position in injectables and pumps, it takes high single-digit revenue growth expectations and strong improvements in free cash flow generation just to get to today's price. Biosimilars may indeed unlock multibillion dollar growth opportunities, but a lot of that seems to be in the stock already.

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over daily movements, we do like to keep an eye on market changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

This week's market boom has made investors feel a little bit better about stocks' slow start to 2014. The Dow Jones Industrial Average  is rising again, up more than 46 points as of 2:30 p.m. EST, with all but a few of the Dow's blue-chippers moving higher. 3M  is among the Dow's big winners today, gaining 1% after investors digested the latest rumors swirling about the conglomerate, while outside the Dow, generic drug-maker Mylan has boomed nearly 10%. Let's catch up on what you need to know.

3M looks for a shake-up
3M stock has gained more than 28% in the past year, and shares are on the move again today after reports emerged that the company is considering offloading its electronics business. Bloomberg first reported that 3M is seeking buyers for the division, projecting that the business could garner up to roughly $1 billion.

The electronics segment posts around $1 billion in annual sales, according to Bloomberg's sources, but has underperformed lately -- as has 3M's entire energy and electronics division, which has seen sales slide in each of the past two years. The business group has also seen operating income nose down each of those two years; as 3M's third-largest operating segment, the decline has weighed down the results of a company that has done a good job keeping up modest revenue growth in its other major segments. By comparison, 3M's industrial division, its largest division and nearly twice the size of its next-largest business by sales, has managed to post revenue growth in each of the last two years. Selling off the electronics unit, even if 3M keeps the majority of its overall energy and electronics segment, would allow the company to focus more on growing businesses.

Around the Dow, shares of entertainment giant Disney has gained about 0.5% so far today. The gain comes after Disney announced a price hike at its Florida theme parks, boosting its single-day pass prices to the Magic Kingdom by $4 to $99. For investors pleased by the stock's great results lately, it's one more addition to Disney's arsenal: Theme parks have performed extremely well as of late, with operating profit growth of more than 16% year over year in its latest quarter on revenue growth of 6%. Disney's lucrative media networks division remains the biggest driver for this company's success, but theme parks -- its second-largest business by sales -- have been a huge boost to the company's soaring results over the past few years.

Finally, Mylan's crushing the markets outside of the Dow today with its big jump after the generics company released its fourth-quarter earnings. The company's net profit surged by more than 11%, with revenue gaining 5% despite a 2% negative currency impact. Investors have even more to cheer about: Mylan expects revenue growth in 2014 above analyst estimates, and with the company's leadership open to new acquisitions in order to expand growth routes, Mylan is on the cusp of what could be a huge year.

Right now, Argentina is suffering from the devaluation of its currency, high inflation, and rising unemployment. However, Yamana Gold sees an opportunity in these developments, as the company focuses on developing two mines in Argentina - Cerro Moro and Suyai. The mines look promising, but is it a wise move given the worrying situation in the country?

High grades offset uncertainty in Yamana Gold's view
Currently, Yamana Gold has one producing mine in Argentina - the Gualcamayo mine. The company also holds a 12.5% interest in the Alumbrera mine, which is operated by Xstrata. This mine produced 120,000 ounces of gold in 2013, roughly 10% of the company's total production. This year, Gualcamayo is expected to increase production to 170,000 ounces.

Gualcamayo produced 1.61 grams of gold per ton of processed ore in the fourth quarter of 2013. In comparison, Cerro Moro's grade is estimated to be 24.34 grams per ton, while Suyai's grade is estimated to be 15.6 grams per ton. High grade leads to lower costs, all else being equal. This is why Yamana Gold is willing to invest money in Argentina during the tough times.

On the contrary, some companies like Silver Standard Resources prefer to diversify from the country. Silver Standard's only producing mine, Pirquitas, is in Argentina. The company recently announced that it is going to acquire Marigold mine from Goldcorp and Barrick Gold in a move to get immediate production in a safe jurisdiction.

Bringing cash to the balance sheet to support future projects
Cerro Moro is expected to deliver first production in 2016. The mine will be producing 150,000 ounces of gold annually and needs $150 million in capital expenditures. As for Suyai, Yamana Gold plans to apply for environmental permits this year. The company estimates that it will need $220 million to develop the project, which will bring 150,000 ounces of gold annually.

In anticipation of these expenses, Yamana Gold has cut its 2014 capital budget by 54% and has also cut its dividend. The company stated that it wants to use the extra cash to strengthen its balance sheet. This cash could be used for taking other opportunities in Argentina rather than for debt repayment.

The capital spending cuts are happening across the industry this year as the gold price remains below levels desired by miners. For example, AngloGold Ashanti  cut its capital budget to $1.3 billion-$1.45 billion from $2 billion in 2013. AngloGold was investing heavily in the recent years. As a result, AngloGold achieved its first annual production growth since 2005, but continued to see net cash outflows. This year, the company will be focused on achieving positive net cash flow, just like Yamana Gold.

As Yamana Gold increases production while cutting spending, its cash flow is likely to improve. The company reported that it estimates all-in sustaining costs of $925 per ounce this year. This cost level makes Yamana Gold one of the lowest-cost producers on the market, giving the company a safety cushion in case gold prices deteriorate.

Bottom line
Yamana's decision to dedicate growth capital to Argentina looks like an interesting bet. The devaluation of the country's currency could help lower the labor costs. However, if the economic situation becomes worse, political stability could come under question. In my view, the game is worth the candles as high-grade mines promise a constant source of low-cost production in the future. 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was trading up 53 points by midafternoon after the latest initial jobless claim numbers came in higher than expected and another report showed orders for durable goods declining last month. Overall, durable goods orders fell 1% in January after dipping 5.3% in December; suggesting that manufacturing has weakened in recent months. Much of the decline was blamed on the highly volatile transportation category.

Motley Fool One analyst Jason Moser offers sound advice regarding economic data.

"Economic data can be useful as it offers up a snapshot in time. But investors should keep a couple of things in mind: most of it is backward-looking and it's almost always revised to some degree." Moser told me, "Investing is a forward-looking exercise and investors that take the longer view needn't worry too much about the day to day noise of the overall economy. In fact they should view it as a window to potential opportunities."

With that in mind, here are two companies solving current problems while focusing on long-term success.

One of the Dow's largest components, Boeing , is doing its part to tackle a major challenge. Many investors overlook Boeing's large pension obligations which have spiked in recent years and even forced the company to report "core" earnings, in addition to its generally accepted accounting figures figures, to remove some of its vast pension expenses and give a clearer picture of the company's business health.

Graph by author. Source: Boeing's annual SEC filings.

Boeing's pension liability is essentially the projection of what it will owe retired employees in the future, minus its current pension plan assets. Boeing's pension obligation stands at $10.4 billion, which is even higher than its total consolidated debt figure of $9.6 billion.

Discount rates, which are tied to interest rates, have been sitting near record lows; that forces companies to lower their expected rate of return on pension fund assets, meaning Boeing has to make up the difference with larger contributions into the account. As those discount rates rise slowly Boeing's pension obligation should decline -- this will happen even faster as the airplane maker continues to increase its contributions into its pension fund.

In addition to those two factors, Boeing is fixing the root cause of its pension woes and leveraging its production job security with contract extensions to convince union workers around the U.S. to switch from a pension-style retirement plan to a 401(k)-style contribution plan. That will prevent additional pension obligations in the future.

As Boeing continues to reverse its underfunded pension status, it is gearing up for a bright long-term future. The company is planning to ramp up production on multiple aircraft to take advantage of its massive backlog of orders valued at $441 billion, which should boost top-line revenue. Furthermore, Boeing expects the world fleet to double in size over the next 20 years. That means an additional 35,280 new airplanes valued at roughly $4.8 trillion, and Boeing is strongly positioned to capture more than its fair share of this long-term growth.

Outside the Dow, Tesla Motors continues its drive higher as the company yesterday announced plans for its battery "gigafactory." Tesla is ramping up production of its Model S electric car, but if the company hopes to make the move from niche automaker to mass-market competitor it will need significantly more lithium-ion batteries for its vehicles. 

Source: Tesla's 2013 Q4 letter to shareholders. 2014 Q2-Q4 are the author's estimates to reach 35,000 global deliveries.

Fortunately for investors, Tesla's gigafactory will be capable of producing batteries for 500,000 vehicles by the end of this decade. Tesla will put up $2 billion of its own money toward the total factory price tag of between $4 billion and $5 billion.

This facility will be constructed through 2015, with battery production to begin in 2017 -- right around the time Tesla's more affordable Gen III electric vehicle is expected to hit the market. As production at its battery factory accelerates it is expected to reduce battery pack cost per kilowatt hour by more than 30%, addressing an issue that has been one of the company's most expensive pieces of the puzzle. That price reduction will help the company bring down its Gen III electric vehicle costs and improve production capacity to make the vehicle a mass-market competitor.

Tesla has serious potential to disrupt multiple industries on the long-term horizon; that has investors climbing over one another to get additional shares of this company even with the stock price sitting near its all-time high. 

Just Energy Group announced today that CEO Ken Hartwick will step down at the end of this fiscal year after 10 years with the company in order to "pursue personal interests," and will be replaced by two inside hires. 

Effective April 1, Just Energy Group, will be co-led by current Executive Vice President of Commercial Operations Deborah Merril, as well as its COO James Lewis. 

Rebecca MacDonald, Just Energy Group's executive chair, sees the transition as a natural for the two industry insiders, saying in a press release:

There is no better tandem to lead our dynamic organization into its next phase as Deb and Jay bring to their new leadership roles extensive industry experience and a thorough knowledge of how Just Energy operates. Jay and Deb have worked together for 16 years and during their tenure at the Company, have demonstrated unique, complimentary capabilities that will provide the balanced leadership we are seeking to take our organization forward as we move to expand our leadership position in North America.

As goals for the upcoming executives, MacDonald mentioned maintaining growth, focusing on the company's product bundling strategy, and further reducing its dividend payout ratio "to support the income our shareholders expect to receive." 

Merril joined Just Energy in 2008 and is currently leading up Just Energy subsidiary Hudson Energy's commercial division. Lewis joined the same year and has served as the company's COO since 2011.

Hartwick said he "fully intends[s] to be a resource to [Merril and Lewis] over the forseeable future." 

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Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of energy and environmental consultant ICF International  jumped 21% today after the company announced earnings and an acquisition.

So what: Fourth-quarter revenue was down 1% to $229.8 million and net income fell 16% to $7.8 million, or $0.38 per share. The other big news was the acquisition of CITYTECH, which has annual revenue of about $16 million.  

Now what: The fourth quarter was a little lighter than expected but the acquisitions will help growth in 2014 and management expects to exceed $1 billion in revenue and $100 million in EBITDA. Earnings are expected to be between $2.27 and $2.37 per share, which puts the stock at 18 times the top end of forward estimates. That's a steep price for the level of growth ICF is expected to have, and it will keep me from being a buyer today.

I get it. Losing 30% of your value -- or as much as 46% if you bought at the peak, and sold at the bottom -- is pretty terrible. Yes, as a fellow Westport Innovations  shareholder, I promise I understand. 2013 was a terrible year by two important measures:

WPRT data by YCharts

We also saw a nasty 10% dilution when the company sold some 6 million shares to raise capital, just days after CEO David Demers told CNBC's Jim Cramer, on Mad Money, that the company didn't need to raise capital. 2013 was, indeed, a terrible year for shareholders. 

But that doesn't mean it was a bad year for Westport. Matter of fact, there's a lot of reason to think that it was actually a pretty great year, and with Clean Energy Fuels  announcing earnings today, we will learn a little bit more. Let's take a closer look at what happened in 2013, and why it adds up to a positive future.

Clean Energy operates more NG station than anyone. Source: Clean Energy Fuels

Lots of stations opening
There's been a lot of chatter in recent weeks about LNG versus CNG, but one thing that's pretty clear is trucking, mass transit, and refuse industries are making moves to adopt NGVs. Clean Energy Fuels opened several dozen CNG stations in 2013, both public and private, and has more than 22 LNG stations -- targeted at truckers -- open as of this writing. Additionally, CEO Andrew Littlefair has stated that Clean Energy is opening 2-3 new stations every month now, primarily co-located with partner Pilot Flying J, the largest operator of truck stops in North America. 

Source: TravelCenters

TravelCenters of America  and Royal Dutch Shell announced last April that they would add LNG at up to 100 existing T/A and TravelCenter locations. To date, neither company has expanded on the initial announcement, but TravelCenters did acquire 31 "Minit Mart" gas stations and convenience stores in December, for $67.9 million, largely covering the acquisition expense via a $60 million public share offering. 

Privately held Love's is also getting into the natural gas business, currently operating one CNG station for heavy-duty trucks, and 11 for light-duty vehicles. The company has plans to open nine CNG stations in the near future.  Integrys Energy Group  subsidiary Trillium CNG operates 52 public and private CNG stations, with another nine under construction. Trillium CNG delivers more than 35 million gallons of natural gas per year. 

More fuel being delivered, more NGVs being bought add up to strong growth 
We will have more data when Clean Energy Fuels' earnings, later today, but according to Clean Energy's press release in December, its existing customers ordered 70% more natural gas vehicles in the first nine months of 2013 than the year before. Clean Energy Fuels is also seeing strong growth (more than 20%) in fuel delivered year over year, and this trend is expected to continue. 

ISX12 G. Source: CWI

Westport's revenues in the fourth quarter were up 32% year over year. Additionally, strong sales at its JV with Cummins showed exceptional growth, selling more than 10,000 engines over the full year, and nearly tripling its unit sales in the third quarter, versus 2012. 2013 revenue increased 57%. Margins were compressed due to start-up and initial warranty expense of the new 12 liter heavy-duty engine, but management made it clear that margins would rebound. 

Additionally, the company's JV in China, Weichai Westport, saw yearly units and revenue grow by 70%. Q4 revenue was down from 2012, but gross margin more than doubled to 9.5% due to both higher margin product mix, and operational efficiencies. WWI is also planning a massive expansion of its capacity, ramping from today's capacity of 50,000 engines to more than 150,000 by 2015. 

Lastly, Volvo is expected to launch its engine, featuring Westport HPDI, later this year, while Westport's partnership with Ford to equip its F-Series pickups with the WiNG dual-fuel system will operate for a full year in 2014, and is expected to be EBITDA positive. 

More than just trucks, engines
The furor over CNG and LNG does have some implications for Westport, via its iCE PACK LNG Tank System, which can generate as much revenue and profit for Westport as a natural gas engine can. On the earnings call, Demers said the following, in response to an analyst question (emphasis mine):

Where we come down on this, we're trying to be a bit agnostic, because I realize that people are really getting worked up about this mix question. But our view is that long haul is going to be mostly LNG. CNG obstacles for long haul are likely just going to be too difficult to overcome ... it's going to be a mix that's determined by the customers, and who goes to gas first, and also kind of how the pricing of fuel and the terms around pricing and long term pricing in particular are translated to that fleet ... Our sense, talking to fleets, frankly, is that in 2014 with the 12 liter in North America, it's likely going to be 60-40, 50-50. It's not going to be 90-10 the way some people are talking.

This matters to Westport, because the upside of the iCE PACK system is too big to ignore. 

Westport also announced on its earnings call that it shipped its first LNG tender in 2013. The company's partnership with Caterpillar isn't expected to start producing revenue before 2017, according to Demers, but CN is moving ahead with testing LNG locomotives from both Caterpillar and General Electric. And at a price of up to $1 million each, LNG tenders offer strong potential for Westport, and sooner than anticipated. 

Final thoughts: 2013 was terrible for investors, but sets the stage for Westport
Losing 30% in 2013 wasn't fun. But Westport made a lot of moves that have it positioned for a strong 2014 and beyond. Management's reiteration of EBITDA-positive results from all of its business segments was big, as was Demers' statement that the company would see positive cash flow in 2014, after years of cash burn to build a market. 

If you've held this long, or are thinking about buying, 2014 looks to be the year investors have been waiting for, largely based on what was accomplished in 2013.

Just because Google doesn't dominate the web search market in every country doesn't mean it can't tap into some lucrative display ad inventory. On Wednesday, the Internet giant announced a partnership with Russia's leading search engine, Yandex , wherein each company will gain access to the other's ad inventory.

The move should prove mutually beneficial for the search companies, and is another step for Yandex to improve its platform and grow its international presence after partnering with Facebook last month.

Source: Yandex

Google gains access to a wider audience
Despite the size of the Russian Internet population, 72 million, the country is connecting people at a rate faster than every other European nation, besides Italy. Yandex claims that its ad network covers 96% of the growing audience. With this partnership, Google's advertising partners can access that valuable audience without the need for Google to forge new relationships with Russian publishers.  

Currently, Google has only a 27% share of the Russian search market, compared to Yandex's 62% share. The growth in mobile is helping Google expand market share slowly, as its search engine is typically the default on most Android devices. Yandex is fighting back, however, and recently announced plans to release its own fork of Android that features Yandex-branded apps and defaults to its search engine.

As each company battles for market share, however, Yandex and Google stand to gain in the short-term from additional bidding on their ad exchanges. Basically, Google is hedging its bet that it can overtake Yandex in Russia, particularly in sourcing publishing partners.

Yandex goes global
Yandex expects that this new partnership will allow its ad inventory to "increase dramatically." This includes inventory in countries where it operates, but doesn't hold a majority share of search or a sizable chunk of the display ad market. This may help keep current advertising partnerships intact with Yandex over a more global operator like Google.

Outside of Russia, Yandex currently operates in Turkey, Belarus, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan. In Turkey, the company is best known for its maps and navigation app, which isn't particularly monetizable. It has just 4% of the search market in the country, according to ComScore. Turkey is an important test for the company's global expansion efforts.

The company is working to expand share in Turkey and other markets by improving its search results. This includes its recent partnership with Facebook to integrate the social network's data into its search results. This means articles people share on the social network will see a boost in search results, and Facebook gets a strategic partnership in a country where it has struggled to overcome the competition.

Yandex has already overtaken Google in Belarus, but the market is so small that it's almost insignificant to each company's revenue. It is a sign, however, that Google can be overtaken by focusing on the creation of a better product.

Best frenemies
Google isn't particularly threatened by Yandex, certainly not as much as Yandex is threatened by Google. Yandex is a much smaller company, but holds valuable ad inventory that Google is now able to utilize in exchange for access to its own, much larger inventory of display ads.

The partnership with Google not only gives Yandex's partners access to additional international ad inventory, but it should also increase Yandex's ad prices. A larger number of bidders (both Yandex's and Google's partners combined) bidding on the same number of ads from Yandex's inventory should, theoretically, improve ad prices. The same is true for Google, except the increase would be less significant.

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of GrafTech International Ltd. are up 12% today after the company reported fourth-quarter earnings.

So what: The quarter wasn't all that strong with revenue down 17% from a year ago to $309 million and a loss of $0.03 per share, both well below estimates. But management said revenue would grow 15% to 20% this year, which implies a range of $1.34 billion to $1.4 billion, well ahead of the estimate of $1.24 billion from Wall Street.  

Now what: This is a classic example of forward guidance meaning more than reported performance because investors are clearly looking past a weak quarter. I will say that management's expectation of $150 million to $180 million in EBITDA is attractive given the company's $1.4 billion market cap and growth rate. I think there's room for the stock to run but management will have to meet or exceed the goals it set today for the stock to do well in 2014.

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of Taseko Mines slumped 10% today after the Canadian government blocked the development of its New Prosperity gold and copper project in British Columbia for the second time in just over three years.

So what: In a statement late Wednesday, Minister of the Environment Leona Aglukkaq concluded that New Prosperity "is likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects that cannot be mitigated," adding to the already high degree of uncertainty over the project's future. In fact, Taseko had already changed up its development plan for New Prosperity after the federal government rejected it in 2010, suggesting that management is running out of options as to what it can do to ease the environmental concerns.

Now what: Don't expect New Prosperity to die without a fight. "Saying no to this project, which is so important to so many people, is not an acceptable conclusion," said Taseko Vice President of Corporate Affairs Brian Battison. "The existing judicial review will continue to run its course. We will be giving consideration to other courses of action which may be available to us." So while Taseko remains far too risky for average investors, resource-savvy speculators might want to pounce on today's plunge on the hopes that management can keep New Prosperity alive. 

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of Mylan , a hybrid biopharmaceutical company that develops branded and generic pharmaceuticals, jumped as much as 11% after the company reported its fourth-quarter earnings results before the opening bell this morning.

So what: For the quarter, Mylan delivered a 5% increase in revenue to $1.81 billion, with foreign currency translation weighing on its results by negative 2%. Mylan recognized a 45% year-over-year reduction in revenue from new product launches, but it had that more than made up by double-digit generic growth from its rest of world segment. Adjusted EPS for the quarter increased 20% from the prior year to $0.78. By comparison, Wall Street had been forecasting just $0.75 in EPS (the $1.81 billion in revenue matched expectations). Looking ahead, Mylan is projecting full-year fiscal 2014 revenue of $7.8 billion-$8.2 billion and EPS of $3.25-$3.60. The Street has been forecasting EPS of $3.43 and revenue of $7.73 billion. Also moving shares, as reported by Bloomberg, were comments made by CEO Heather Bresch in a meeting with analysts that the company may be on the acquisition hunt.

Now what: Chalk up another great quarter for Mylan and shareholders. Mylan continues to benefit from both worlds -- enjoying the higher margins associated with branded drugs while feasting off of the finite patent protection period of already approved therapies, which creates a nearly endless stream of generic possibilities. This hybrid pharmaceutical combination turns these companies into cash-flow machines. With double-digit growth expected in 2014 and Mylan valued at a mere 17 times forward earnings, I'd suggest there's a good chance its shares may head even higher.

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of BioScrip , a provider of home care services and pharmacy benefit management services in the U.S., tumbled by as much as 13% after the company reported disappointing fourth-quarter earnings results.

So what: For the quarter, BioScrip reported a nearly 35% increase in revenue to $243.5 million, driven by a 56.3% boost in its infusion services segment. The bulk of this gain came from the acquisition of HomeChoice and CarePoint, and through organic growth from its existing infusion services. By contrast, its home health service revenue was basically flat while its pharmacy benefit management, or PBM, segment saw revenue nearly halved to $13.5 million due to the termination of a low-margin client during the quarter. Despite its strong revenue growth, BioScrip's loss per share ballooned to $0.23 from $0.03 in the year-ago period. By comparison, BioScrip topped the Street's revenue estimate by nearly $4.1 million, but missed its expectation of a $0.04 EPS profit by a mile. For fiscal 2014, BioScrip anticipates 20% revenue growth in its infusion segment with double-digit organic growth that will be offset by ongoing weakness in its home health and PBM segments.

Now what: BioScrip has obviously demonstrated that it can grow rapidly via acquisitions, but today's drop appears to demonstrate that shareholders want to see better cost control and more organic growth before they'll give it a clean bill of health. With the uncertainties of Medicare reimbursements readily apparent because of the transformative health care law known as Obamacare, I can understand why the home health segment is struggling. However, there's no reason that BioScrip shouldn't be able to snag new contracts in its PBM segment, which should benefit from Obamacare. Until we see a marked improvement in BioScrip's bottom line and its PBM segment, I'd suggest sticking to the sidelines.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average can often be a sleepy place for investors to look for stocks. The blue chips that fill the index are often highly diversified, meaning that one news item won't cause ripples in the market like it will with smaller companies that fill the Nasdaq Composite or the S&P 500.

What the Dow can't offer in excitement, it can make up for with profit-making dividends that pay investors simply for owning a company's stock. Two of the best dividends on the Dow now come from companies you probably know well: AT&T and Verizon .

AT&T recently upped its quarterly dividend to $0.46, giving it a 5.6% yield for investors. The consistency with which AT&T has grown revenue is impressive, and its virtual duopoly with Verizon Wireless in cellular telephones gives it incredible pricing power with customers.

T Revenue (TTM) data by YCharts.

Verizon's industry leading LTE network in the U.S. give it even more pricing power and has kept its payout to investors climbing. The stock's 4.6% yield isn't as high as AT&T, but I'd argue that there's more growth potential now that it owns all of cash cow Verizon Wireless.

Telecom is a long-term dream for investors
Investors shouldn't ignore these two telecom stock that are deeply ingrained in U.S. daily life. While cell phone, app, search engine, and social media companies may come and go quickly, the cell towers that carry data to our mobile devices are in higher demand today than they've ever been.

AT&T and Verizon have such large networks that as hard as Sprint and T-Mobile try they can't catch up to the fast service that customers demand. That leaves smaller carriers to compete on price, which lowers margins and reduces the ability to build out cell networks over the long term.

It's a vicious cycle that works against small cell companies but bodes well for the cash flow for AT&T and Verizon. These are high-yielding stocks today and I don't see anything but growth for these two Dow Jones Industrial Average powers in the future.

It seems that one of the fastest-growing sectors in technology is about to slow down, according to an IDC report released yesterday. "2014 will mark the year smartphone growth drops more significantly than ever before." Is the industry outlook really that bad? I think there may be insights here for Apple  and BlackBerry .

The law of large numbers is behind IDC on the overall industry analysis, but upon closer examination of the details, there are a few significant things to point out. First, however, realize that an analyst is handicapped by the data. Things will change a year from now that can't be figured into multi-year projections. Since you buy, use, and talk about cell phones, consider yourself an expert and decide whether these assumptions pass the smell test.

Apple's growth rate is going to accelerate over the next five years 
According to IDC's shipment projections for iOS, the compounded annual growth rate will be 10.2% from 2014 through 2018. If you're an Apple investor, that's fantastic. For a business that generated $94 billion in revenue over the last 12 months, 10.2% unit growth is something to write home about. In the December quarter, unit growth was only 7% year over year, so if there are signs that unit growth will speed up rather than slowing down the way that it has been, consider buying more shares of Apple. This probably isn't going to happen, but it is a nice thought.

Windows Phone shipments will grow 2.5 times faster than the industry
The IDC projections also show Windows Phone increasing its market share to 7% of the overall industry. That seems reasonable with the Nokia Corp acquisition but what happens if the culture at Microsoft Corporation or the public's desire for a Windows based phone has crimps Nokia's ability to grow? Does 29.5% growth seem reasonable for a business acquired by Microsoft?

BlackBerry will lose 70% of its current market share 
IDC is projecting that the once-mighty BlackBerry will drop from its current 1% market share down to 0.3%. IDC was probably trying to be kind in saying that the company will not exist as a relevant player, instead of saying that the company simply will not exist. BlackBerry has a good chance to build a niche among security conscious entities. After last week's introduction of a $200 smartphone, that likelihood now seems even greater.

Analysts have the thankless job of making projections based on historical data. Their projections will be wrong almost every time, so it's just a question of how wrong. True value comes in understanding the assumptions behind the numbers, which forms the basis for market expectations.

Don't get caught up in the details
As investors, your job is to find opportunities where analysts have it wrong -- expectation vs. reality. If market expectations are that BlackBerry won't even exist in five years, yet you think that it will, perhaps the stock is worth buying. If you think Apple's growth will slow over the next five years perhaps it is worth selling. Don't get too focused on the details.

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of Safe Bulkers are sailing north today as much as 8.1% following release of its fiscal-fourth-quarter earnings in after hours yesterday.

So what: Adjusted earnings per share annihilated the earnings estimates of $0.18, coming in at $0.38 per share, or more than double the average estimates. Safe Bulkers declared a quarterly dividend of $0.06, the same amount declared and paid three months ago.

The beat in and of itself shouldn't be a surprise considering that Safe Bulkers discloses the details of all of its contracts for its ships, which means that any analyst who wanted to do the painstaking work should have been able to figure out the earnings results accurately before they were released.

The pop in the share price may have had more to do with the positive commentary from company president Dr. Loukas Barmparis. He said, "As many of our long duration time charters expired, we have substantial and increasing exposure to the spot market. We believe our ongoing efforts to renew and gradually expand our fleet has positioned us well this early stage of the forthcoming shipping cycle."

Now what: The commentary from Barmparis makes Safe Bulkers the latest dry shipping company to express optimism regarding the future state of the rate environment. By using the term "early stage" he implied that the recovery has a long way to go both in terms of time and rates.

Safe Bulkers is executing a change in strategy from mostly long-term, fixed-rate contracts to more deals that are a function of the daily spot rates. The company has a large amount of its current contracts coming to expiration this year, many of which are below or near the current spot price rates.

If Safe Bulkers is correct about the improving rate environment, this shift in strategy will pay off through higher revenue per ship per day on average. All other things being equal, higher revenue tends to fall straight to the bottom line as higher net income. If so, look for Safe Bulkers to possibly raise its dividend.

If Safe Bulkers is wrong about the rate environment, it could be in trouble. However, it's interesting to note that its three largest and currently most profitable ships, its Capesizes, are all on fixed-rate contracts that don't expire for seven to 17 years. The rates for these ships are between 100% and 200% above the current daily spot rate for Capesize ships so this offers some diversification and protection against Safe Bulkers' strategy of spot rates for the smaller ships in its fleet.

Around two-thirds of its fleet operating days for the remainder of the year are subject to be exposed to the daily spot rate. This amount goes up to 85% for 2015, with the majority of the remaining 15% being the aforementioned high-rated Capesize ships. Safe Bulkers is an excellent position should rates continue to go upward.

Last but not least, Safe Bulkers has eight more ships on order currently being built set mostly for delivery in 2015. If the recovery in the dry shipping business is in full swing by then, Safe Bulkers revenue and earnings should be substantially higher than current. However, a lot of dry shipping companies seem to be thinking this same way, and there is concern expressed by some analysts -- and even some shipping executives -- that the supply of new orders will offset the expected rise in demand. 

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Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of Republic Airways Holdings jumped 10% today after the small aircraft operator reported earnings.

So what: Operating revenue in the fourth quarter was up 5.8% to $346.5 million and net income from continuing operations nearly doubled to $16.5 million, or $0.30 per share. Earnings were $0.03 below estimates, but revenue came in slightly ahead of estimates on the back of 22.5% growth in the fixed-fee-service business.  

Now what: The sale of Frontier Airlines resulted in a big drop in passenger service revenue, but the core fixed-fee business is still doing well. That's what investors are looking at today and for the full year we've seen fixed-fees grow 15.8%. Shares trade at just nine times forward estimates and, given Republic Airways' momentum, I think shares still have room to run.

Think back about five years, and you'll likely recall that Brazil's integrated oil company Petroleo Brasileiro , or Petrobras to most of us, and its minerals miner Vale were largely considered the creme de la creme among companies domiciled in the BRIC nations. But then their country's government and economy figuratively skidded down a steep embankment, dragging the two companies' valuations with them.

Source: Wikipedia Commons.

While you're thinking retrospectively, you might also remember that, during the previous decade South America's largest country was the epitome of an optimistically viewed developing nation. That status wasn't hindered by the 2007 discovery of the giant Tupi field in the deep pre-salt waters of the Santos Basin.

Brazil's economic potholes
Nor was a 7.5% economic growth rate in 2010 at all problematic. But a host of other factors -- like excessive public sector spending, bottlenecks created by infrastructure insufficiencies, overregulation, corruption, and a dearth of skilled workers -- have tromped the country's growth to the meager -- albeit still estimated -- rate of 0.3% for the most recent quarter, perilously close to being recessionary.

Simultaneously, Petrobras has tumbled from a five-year high near $50 a share (it had topped $70 shortly after the Tupi discovery) to a current level below $12. For its part, Vale, the world's largest producer of iron ore, skidded from more than $35 per share in early 2011 to a current level near $14. While I don't see either company returning to its prior levels in the short term, it also seems that both have suffered more of a valuation shellacking than was appropriate.

Propellers for Petrobras
And lo and behold, there are a few emerging bright lights in Brazil's future that could at least psychologically boost the esteem in which its major companies are held. Later this year, for instance, the World Cup will be held in the country. And the next time Olympic Games are conducted, in the summer of 2016, Brazil will serve as their host. Beyond that, the International Energy Agency expects the country to triple its oil production during the next couple of decades. That final prognostication obviously will do wonders for state-controlled Petrobras.

Beyond that, it's important to note that the company is hardly confined to its home country. Indeed, its operations can be found in 25 countries, including the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, where it has become a major player. In that venue, as my Foolish colleague Arjun Sreekumar told you earlier this month, it holds a 25% interest in the big St. Malo field (among others), in which Chevron is the operator and holder of a 51% interest. With Chevron targeting the deepwater Gulf for increased activity this year, Petrobras could well be a beneficiary.

From a purely valuation standpoint, let's compare Petrobras to Norway's Statoil , another comparably sized, state-controlled international player. While the Brazilian company's trailing P/E ratio is about six times, Statoil's is twice as high. And yet, Petrobras sports a PEG ratio below 0.50, indicating expectations of substantial growth for the company in the coming years. Statoil's is twice as high, evidence of far less sanguine forecasts.

Vale's excessive valuation shortfall
Vale, in addition to its supremacy in iron ore -- a key ingredient in the manufacture of steel -- also produces a variety of minerals and metals that include nickel, fertilizers, copper, coal, manganese, cobalt, platinum metals, and precious metals. Its operations occur both in Brazil and in a variety of international locations.

Much of Vale's financial success depends upon iron ore demand and prices, which in turn are substantially at the mercy of construction levels and other manufacturing and infrastructure activities in China. Ore prices actually rose during 2013, only to dip as this year began, and the jury remains out about their likely direction as 2014 progresses.

In the meantime, Vale's trailing P/E sits slightly above 15 times, versus nearly 29 times for Rio Tinto , a slightly larger, but otherwise comparable Anglo-Australian minerals producer. That significant disparity exists despite Vale's 33% operating margin, compared with slightly more than 27% for Rio. And what's more, Vale's 5.3% return on equity dwarfs Rio Tinto's 1.9%.

The Foolish bottom line
There are other substantial international companies headquartered in Brazil. But for now the potential for a brightening picture in the country and the apparent undervaluation of both Petrobras and Vale are well worth Foolish observation.