Ferro's Shares Surged: What You Need to Know (FOE)

Ferro's Shares Surged: What You Need to Know

Watch stocks you care about

The single, easiest way to keep track of all the stocks that matter...

Your own personalized stock watchlist!

It's a 100% FREE Motley Fool service...

Click Here Now

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 specialty materials manufacturer Ferro (NYSE: FOE ) made some friends today and gained as much as 15.4% on modest trading volume.

So what: The stock is bouncing off a 52-week basement floor thanks to a surprisingly positive housing report. Ferro doesn't build houses or cast concrete foundations but provides chemicals to makers of actual building materials on a large scale.

Now what: Fellow Fool Travis Hoium likes the profit trends in Ferro and thinks the stock deserves much better than this 66% year-to-date share-price swoon. There are certainly more direct plays on a housing recovery than this one, but the price is right if you believe in the company. One word of warning before diving in with both feet: Ferro's balance sheet is cash-poor and heavy in debt, and the company needs to turn its negative cash flows around to avoid a very serious cash crunch.

Interested in more info about Ferro? Add it to My Watchlist.

The Steve Jobs Betrayal
You may already know that in the final year of his life, Jobs revealed a stunning betrayal — and told his biographer, "I will spend my last dying breath... and every penny of Apple's $40 billion in the bank to right this wrong." What was it that made Jobs so irate — and why could it make a few in-the-know investors some major profits over the coming months and years?

Enter your email address below to find out what made Jobs so enraged!

Fool contributor Anders Bylund holds no position in any of the companies mentioned. We Fools don't all hold the same opinion, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. Check out Anders' holdings and bio, or follow him on Twitter and Google+. We have a disclosure policy.

Comments from our Foolish Readers

Help us keep this a respectfully Foolish area! This is a place for our readers to discuss, debate, and learn more about the Foolish investing topic you read about above. Help us keep it clean and safe. If you believe a comment is abusive or otherwise violates our Fool's Rules, please report it via the Report this Comment icon found on every comment.