On Wednesday, Amazon (AMZN) unveiled a kid-friendly version of its popular smart speaker featuring its voice assistant Alexa.
The Echo Dot Kids Edition plays music, answers questions and comes with a one-year subscription to Amazon's FreeTime Unlimited, which offers access to kid-friendly books and ad-free radio stations.
The colorful gadgets -- which come in protective cases of either blue, red or green -- are loaded with parental controls. Parents can set time limits for use and pre-select which services kids can access. It's also possible to block songs with inappropriate lyrics and shut off its ability to purchase items from the internet.
Similar to the grownup version of the Amazon Echo Dot, Alexa will answer your questions, but the responses on the newer device are tailored to a younger audience. Ask Alexa if Santa is real on the new device, and it'll respond: "I haven't met him, but if I do, I want to ask about Rudolph's nose."
Top 5 Growth Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Intuitive Surgical Inc.(ISRG)
Intuitive Surgical, Inc. designs, manufactures, and markets da Vinci surgical systems for various surgical procedures, including urologic, gynecologic, cardiothoracic, general, and head and neck surgeries. Its da Vinci surgical system consists of a surgeon?s console or consoles, a patient-side cart, a 3-D vision system, and proprietary ?wristed? instruments. The company?s da Vinci surgical system translates the surgeon?s natural hand movements on instrument controls at the console into corresponding micro-movements of instruments positioned inside the patient through small puncture incisions, or ports. It also manufactures a range of EndoWrist instruments, which incorporate wrist joints for natural dexterity for various surgical procedures. Its EndoWrist instruments consist of forceps, scissors, electrocautery, scalpels, and other surgical tools. In addition, it sells various vision and accessory products for use in conjunction with the da Vinci Surgical System as surgical procedures are performed. The company?s accessory products include sterile drapes used to ensure a sterile field during surgery; vision products, such as replacement 3-D stereo endoscopes, camera heads, light guides, and other items. It markets its products through sales representatives in the United States, and through sales representatives and distributors in international markets. The company was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Motley Fool Staff]
For this episode, it's time to check in on not one but two such samplers. First, it's been one year since he offered up "Five Stocks I Own That You Should Too." Those were Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVI), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG), Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ:ISRG), Match Group (NASDAQ:MTCH), and Zillow (NASDAQ:Z) (NASDAQ:ZG), and he'll review their progress with senior analyst Jim Mueller.
- [By Stephan Byrd]
Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Intuitive Surgical (ISRG)
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Top 5 Growth Stocks To Invest In Right Now: MEDIFAST INC(MED)
Medifast, Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in the production, distribution, and sale of weight management and disease management products, and other consumable health and diet products in the United States. The company?s product lines include weight and disease management, meal replacement, and vitamins. It also operates weight control centers that offer Medifast programs for weight loss and maintenance, customized patient counseling, and inbody composition analysis. The company markets its products under the Medifast and Essential brand names, including shakes, appetite suppression shakes, women?s health shakes, diabetics shakes, joint health shakes, coronary health shakes, calorie burn drinks, calorie burn flavor infusers, antioxidant shakes, antioxidant flavor infusers, bars, crunch bars, soups, chili, oatmeal, pudding, scrambled eggs, hot cocoa, cappuccino, chai latte, iced teas, fruit drinks, pretzels, puffs, brownie, pancakes, soy crisps, crackers, and omega 3 and digestive health products. Medifast Inc. sells its products through various channels of distribution comprising Web, call center, independent health advisors, medical professionals, weight loss clinics, and direct consumer marketing supported via the phone and the Web; Take Shape for Life, a physician led network of independent health coaches; and weight control centers. The company was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in Owings Mills, Maryland.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Motley Fool Transcribers]
Medifast Inc (NYSE:MED)Q4 2018 Earnings Conference CallFeb. 26, 2019, 4:30 p.m. ET
Contents: Prepared Remarks Questions and Answers Call Participants Prepared Remarks:Operator
- [By Logan Wallace]
MediBloc [MED] (CURRENCY:MED) traded 11.7% lower against the U.S. dollar during the 1 day period ending at 20:00 PM ET on February 16th. MediBloc [MED] has a total market capitalization of $19.63 million and $281,103.00 worth of MediBloc [MED] was traded on exchanges in the last 24 hours. During the last seven days, MediBloc [MED] has traded down 27.6% against the U.S. dollar. One MediBloc [MED] token can currently be bought for $0.0066 or 0.00000100 BTC on major exchanges including Coinrail, Bibox and Gate.io.
- [By Logan Wallace]
State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System raised its stake in Medifast Inc (NYSE:MED) by 12.4% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 5,781 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after buying an additional 640 shares during the period. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System’s holdings in Medifast were worth $926,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
- [By Max Byerly]
MediBloc [QRC20] (MED) is a proof-of-work (PoW) token that uses the HybridScryptHash256 hashing algorithm. It was first traded on January 3rd, 2014. MediBloc [QRC20]’s total supply is 4,097,545,844 tokens and its circulating supply is 2,966,384,100 tokens. The official website for MediBloc [QRC20] is medibloc.org/en. MediBloc [QRC20]’s official Twitter account is @MEDDevTeam. The Reddit community for MediBloc [QRC20] is /r/MediBloc and the currency’s Github account can be viewed here. MediBloc [QRC20]’s official message board is medium.com/@MediBloc.
Top 5 Growth Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Nordstrom Inc.(JWN)
Nordstrom, Inc., a fashion specialty retailer, offers apparel, shoes, cosmetics, and accessories for women, men, and children in the United States. It offers a selection of brand name and private label merchandise. The company sells its products through various channels, including Nordstrom full-line stores, off-price Nordstrom Rack stores, Jeffrey? boutiques, treasure & bond, and Last Chance clearance stores; and its online store, nordstrom.com, as well as through catalog. Nordstrom also provides a private label card, two Nordstrom VISA credit cards, and a debit card for Nordstrom purchases. The company?s credit and debit cards feature a shopping-based loyalty program. As of September 30, 2011, it operated 222 stores, including 117 full-line stores, 101 Nordstrom Racks, 2 Jeffrey boutiques, 1 treasure & bond store, and 1 clearance store in 30 states. The company was founded in 1901 and is based in Seattle, Washington.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By ]
Nordstrom (JWN) was down 8.5% after the department-store operator was downgraded to Underweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley. Nordstrom stock dropped 18% on Wednesday after reporting earnings.
- [By ]
Nordstrom (ticker: JWN) reported fiscal second-quarter earnings of 49 cents a share, ahead of consensus estimates at 27 cents a share, according to FactSet. Sales of $3.57 billion were up 101% from last year and above consensus estimates at $3.34 billion. Still, sales were down 6% from the same period in 2019, before the pandemic withered traffic counts in department stores.
- [By Dan Caplinger (TMFGalagan)]
However, there were some hints of discontentment in the after-hours session, as a couple of retail stocks reported disappointing earnings results. Both Nordstrom (NYSE:JWN) and Urban Outfitters (NASDAQ:URBN) lost ground, and what they said could cast a shadow over the idea that the vaccination-led economic recovery will inevitably produce strength across the retail industry.
- [By Rhian Hunt (TMFRhianHunt)]
Physical retail is clearly Amazon's weakest point, despite multiple attempts by the e-commerce giant to break into this market. With the company's relative lack of success in the space and the small size of the stores relative to other department stores limiting the selection of products likely to be on display at any future "Amazon department store," it's difficult to see the idea as a serious threat to either department stores like Macy's and Kohl's, or more specialized retailers such as Nordstrom (NYSE:JWN) or Ross Stores (NASDAQ:ROST). Nor do the stores seem likely to improve Amazon's delivery or return services significantly, given how quick and efficient those services already are.
Top 5 Growth Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Buffalo Wild Wings Inc.(BWLD)
Buffalo Wild Wings, Inc. engages in the ownership, operation, and franchise of restaurants in the United States. The company provides quick casual and casual dining services, as well as serves bottled beers, wines, and liquor. As of July 26, 2011, it had 773 Buffalo Wild Wings locations in 45 states in the United States, as well as in Canada. The company was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Steve Symington]
That's not to say it was a quiet day for every stock on the market. With earnings season ramping up, brewing giant Anheuser-Busch InBev (NYSE:BUD) and restaurant chain Buffalo Wild Wings (NASDAQ:BWLD) served as an exercise in contrast as investors reacted to their respective quarterly reports.
- [By Peter Graham]
A long term performance chart shows Dave & Busters Entertainment tripling in value before falling back while small cap upscale gentlemen's clubs and restaurant owner RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc (NASDAQ: RICK) began taking off in 2016 and small cap Buffalo Wild Wings (NASDAQ: BWLD) is being acquired by Arby's Restaurant Group:
Top 5 Growth Stocks To Invest In Right Now: TrueBlue Inc.(TBI)
TrueBlue, Inc. provides temporary blue-collar staffing services in the United States. It supplies on demand general labor to various industries under the Labor Ready brand; skilled labor to manufacturing and logistics industries under the Spartan Staffing brand; and trades people for commercial, industrial, and residential construction, and building and plant maintenance industries under the CLP Resources brand. The company also provides mechanics and technicians to the aviation maintenance, repair and overhaul, aerospace manufacturing, and assembly industries, as well as to other transportation industries under the Plane Techs brand; and temporary drivers to the transportation and distribution industries under the Centerline brand. It primarily serves small and medium-size businesses. The company was formerly known as Labor Ready, Inc. and changed its name to TrueBlue, Inc. in December 2007. TrueBlue, Inc. was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Tacoma, Washington.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Logan Wallace]
ValuEngine downgraded shares of Trueblue (NYSE:TBI) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a report issued on Friday morning.
Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on TBI. Zacks Investment Research cut shares of Trueblue from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 12th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on shares of Trueblue from $26.00 to $24.00 and set a market perform rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 11th. TheStreet cut shares of Trueblue from a b- rating to a c rating in a research report on Monday, December 31st. Finally, Credit Suisse Group decreased their price objective on shares of Trueblue from $31.00 to $25.00 and set a hold rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 6th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have given a hold rating to the company. Trueblue presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $26.00.
- [By Motley Fool Transcribers]
TrueBlue Inc (NYSE:TBI)Q4 2018 Earnings Conference CallFeb. 07, 2019, 5:00 p.m. ET
Contents: Prepared Remarks Questions and Answers Call Participants Prepared Remarks:Operator
- [By Max Byerly]
Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. lifted its holdings in Trueblue Inc (NYSE:TBI) by 18.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 30,550 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,700 shares during the period. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd.’s holdings in Trueblue were worth $823,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.
