On Thursday, Zipcar takes to the NASDAQ, using the easy-to-remember ticker symbol ZIP. I had to delve into the rear portion of my over-extended brain, but, yes indeed, I was once a Zipcar customer.

While studying for the PhD I never finished (and I didn't even end up a Starbucks (SBUX) barista) at the University of California-Irvine, I made frequent use of Zipcar's service. The setup could not have been more ideal for me, as a car-free person whose primary modes of transport are - in order - bicycle, my feet and public transportation. I lived in some of the best on-campus housing I've ever seen. The closest Zipcar lot was less than a five-minute walk from my apartment. Whenever I had to head from Orange County to Los Angeles to do research, I borrowed a Zipcar.

Zipcar's business model, from a geographical standpoint, has two focuses. One - large

Box Ships (TEU) is scheduling a $160 million IPO with a market capitalization of $242 million at the price range mid-point of $16, for Thursday, April 14, 2010. The full IPO calendar lists seven other IPOs for this week.

SUMMARY & CONCLUSION: TEU is a newly formed Greek company buying six container ships with an average remaining charter duration of 35.3 months. The parent company, Paragon Shipping (PRGN), has a market capitalization of $163 million. PRGN’s stock declined 30% in the last six months. PRGN is spinning off two of its 14 ships to TEU.

TEU’s management company, Allseas, is controlled by Michael Bodouroglou, the top officer at both PRGN and TEU. Allseas will receive significant direct cash flow from TEU -- a red flag.

The top officers are the same and will run both companies, which is not an endorsement based on PRGN’s six month stock decline -- another

Zipcar (proposed symbol ZIP) is scheduling a $125 million IPO with a market capitalization of $579 million at a price range mid-point of $15 for Thursday, April 14, 2011. Full IPO Calendar lists 7 other IPOs for this week.

CONCLUSION -- On a short-term basis at 30% of the market capitalization of Avis Budget (CAR) and Dollar Thrifty (DTG), car sharing Zipcar is an interesting speculation, if it can increase market share and reduce the operating expense to revenue ratio. ZIP reported EBITDA of $3.6 million for both the September and December 2010 quarters on respective quarterly revenues of $55 million and $52 million.

On a longer basis, ZIP appears vulnerable to competition from better-known car rental brands.

SUMMARY-- Zipcar has 550,000 members and 8,000 vehicles in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Sales for ZIP were up 40% for 2010 versus 2009, but the operating loss expense

Brian Katz is chief investment officer for The Colony Group, a Boston-based RIA advising high-net-worth individuals, corporate clients and institutional investors. He previously worked in research analysis at Kobren Insight Management and has more than 15 years of experience.

We've talked about high conviction holdings before; welcome back, and it's good to talk with you again.

Likewise. Thank you for the opportunity.

In the 15 months since we discussed your holding of Verisign (VRSN), it's up more than 50% (and issued a special $3 dividend in December); how has the trade worked out for you?

We started accumulating VRSN in June of 2009, prior to our interview with Seeking Alpha. It has been a standout performer for our

Navios Maritime Partners L.P (NMM) is a master limited partnership that owns and operates dry bulk ships. Its parent company, Navios Maritime Holdings (NM), formed the partnership in 2007 and still holds a 28.7% stake. The partnership currently has a fleet of five Capesize, 10 Panamax and one Ultra Handymax dry bulk carriers, for a total of 16 ships. The partnership's fleet has an average charter coverage of 4.6 years, and the ships have an average age of five years. Navios is actively growing its fleet, receiving five dropdown vessels from Navios Maritime Holdings in 2010, and is raising money to further expand. NMM's most recent distribution was $0.43 per unit, for an annualized distribution of $1.72. Based on units closing at $20.67, shares are yielding 8.3%.

Distribution growth has followed a slow and steady approach for the last 12 quarters, increasing seven times in that period. While increasing distributions

Honda (NYSE:HMC) is one of Japan’s leading automakers and the recent earthquake and nuclear disaster will take its toll on the company. As the eighth largest car manufacturer based upon global vehicle sales in 2010 and the third largest in Japan,^[1] we expect Honda could face some challenges in the near term as it recovers from the quake. The car giant competes like BMW (BAMXY.PK), GM (NYSE:GM), Daimler (DDAIF.PK), Ford (NYSE:F), Toyota (NYSE:TM) and others.

By David Russell

Brink's (BCO) has reached its highest levels in more than two years, but traders are positioning for a drop. Our Depth Charge tracking system detected a surge of activity in the armored-car company, which usually trades fewer than 100 contracts in a session. More than 40 times that amount changed hands yesterday.

The June 30 puts accounted for more than three-quarters of the volume. Most of the options priced late in the session, first for $0.50, then for $0.55 and then for $0.60 as strong buying drove

By David Russell

Meritor (MTOR) took a jarring hit last week, and the bears are looking for more downside. Our Depth Charge tracking system detected the purchase of more than 6,000 May 19 puts, most of which priced for $2.50 to $2.60. Volume was more than 50 times open interest in the strike.

MTOR, which rose 0.47 percent to $16.99 yesterday, has been trying to hang on after a 15 percent plunge last

By Devin Coldewey

By Tim Seymour

By David Russell

Some investors simply refuse to give up hope for the airlines. We have seen repeated call rolls in the sector this year as traders pay money to keep their losing positions open. Today they're going after United Continental Holdings (UAL), which has lost more than one-quarter of its value since late October and is attempting to cling to support at the $21 level.

In the largest trade, a block of 10,000 June 29 calls was sold for $0.18 against existing open interest and replaced with 10,000 September 29 calls for $0.73. The trade cost the investor a net $0.55 to keep the position open for an additional three months.

Some 3,000 April 23 calls were rolled to the May 23 expiration while 2,000 June 24s were swapped out

Moody’s Japan K.K. has placed its Aa2 long-term senior unsecured and issuer ratings on Toyota Motor Corporation (TM) and its supported subsidiaries under review for possible downgrade. The company’s Prime-1 short-term rating is affirmed and not affected by this rating action.

The ratings on the following entities are affected:

Toyota Motor Corporation, Toyota Financial Services Corporation, Toyota Finance Australia Limited, Toyota Credit Canada Inc., Toyota Motor Finance (Netherlands) B.V., Toyota Finance Corporation, Toyota Finance New Zealand Limited, Toyota Financial Services (S. Africa) (Pty).

The review for possible downgrade reflects Moody’s view that Toyota’s financial and operating performance will worsen in the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami and the resulting supply chain disruptions. Toyota’s financial performance was already weak relative to expectations for the Aa2 rating level, which had been reflected in the negative outlook.

Although Toyota’s factories have not suffered any significant damages due to the earthquake

Several months ago, I had the opportunity to “talk shop” with a truck driver who specializes household moves. I will call him “Bob.” When Bob discovered that I write a blog dealing with trading and investing in financial markets, he asked me for my forecast for the economy. I did not have anything good to say for the near-term prospects in the moving industry, but I think he had the more interesting story to share. I quickly became fascinated enough with the industry’s dynamics to write this piece about movers. In doing so, I am reminded that, even in a time of record corporate profits, this country still has important parts of its economy that are struggling to survive. These are industries where numerous workers are struggling as if the recession never ended – revenues are not keeping up with costs and stagflation feels very real.

I asked Bob a

In finance, a contrarian is one who attempts to profit by investing in a manner that differs from the consensus, when the consensus opinion appears to be wrong. A contrarian believes that certain crowd behavior among investors can lead to exploitable mispricings in securities markets. For example, widespread pessimism about a stock can drive a price so low that it overstates the company's risks, and understates its prospects for returning to profitability.

Identifying and purchasing such distressed stocks, and selling them after the company recovers, can lead to above-average gains. Cramer says “No one ever made a dime panicking.” The bear market of 1974 gave Warren Buffett the opportunity to purchase a stake in the Washington Post Company (WPO). This one investment subsequently provided Buffett with more than a hundred fold return. One of Buffett's famous quotes is to "look at market fluctuations as your friend rather than your enemy;

By David Sterman

Analysts love to grab headlines, and to do this, they often resort to their favorite ploy: The super-sized price target. So when analysts at Morgan Stanley (MS) predicted that GM might eventually soar to $100, I and others sat up and took notice.

Morgan Stanley's analysts predicted that shares would start to build higher right away on the heels of yet-to-be-released fourth quarter results. To be fair, their $100 target was predicated on results several years into the future. But so far, this bold prediction looks like a dud. The stock is off 18% since we looked at this investment thesis, trading right around its 52-week low.

Were the analysts flat wrong? Or were they simply premature? Let's take a look.

[Click to enlarge]

In hindsight, the analysts overlooked one major point of concern: rising oil prices. GM, along with Ford (F), remains highly dependent on pick-up

Q1 2011 Earnings Call

April 05, 2011 9:00 am ET

Executives

Daniel Houser - Chief Financial Officer, Principal Accounting Officer, Senior Vice President and Treasurer

John Saunders - President

Charles Talbert - Director of Investor & Corporate Communications

Lesa Kennedy - Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Analysts

Stephen Altebrando - Sidoti & Company, LLC

Michael Walsh

Edward Williams - BMO Capital Markets U.S.

Brandon Taylor - Raymond James

Alvin Concepcion - Citigroup

Barry Lucas - Gabelli & Company, Inc.

Presentation

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to the International Speedway Corporation's 2011 First Quarter Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the conference over to Charles Talbert, Director of Investor and Corporate Communications for International Speedway. Mr. Talbert, please go ahead.

Charles Talbert

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the International Speedway's conference call. We are here to discuss the

Why Tesla Shares Are More Likely to Hit $7 Rather Than $70

Last week there was an analyst at Morgan Stanley who put out a report with a $70 price target on Tesla (TSLA) shares, even though they had recently been languishing in the low $20's. You can read more about this extremely bullish price target here.

I would say this is putting the cart before the horse. Do you really need to put a