By Meena Krishnamsetty - May 21, 2012 | Tickers: JEF, MCY, SHLD, WFC | 0 Comments

Meena is a member of The Motley Fool Blog Network -- entries represent the personal opinions of our bloggers and are not formally edited.

Bruce Berkowitz, who runs Fairholme, initiated a position in Mercury General(NYSE: MCY) and added to his holdings in Sears (NASDAQ: SHLD), Jefferies (NYSE: JEF), and Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC). Below we examine his picks.

Mercury General: MCY writes risk classifications for automobile insurance. We view MCY as a turnaround story given a tough last few years. In December 2011, the company implemented a change in its personal auto rating plan in California (its biggest market) and changed its business mix, resulting in a 16% y-o-y bump in new California personal auto business, which reflects better pricing and cost trends in the CA personal auto market. That type of growth number is not bad at all.

Further good news came from the cost side of the business. If MCY is able to continue to tightly control expenses, the combined ratio should improve and yield more profitable underwriting results. MCYs expense ratio improved 26.8% y-o-y, and management has noted that it expects a long-term 27% expense ratio. Effective expense management and thecompany's ~5.4% dividend yield are bright spots, but we remain wary of a decline in future rate increases and continued adverse reserve development (last quarter was MCY's seventh straight quarter of adversedevelopment). In our opinion the risk-reward skew is in the investors favor, but only slightly so.

Sears: SHLD is a troubling stock, namely because you need to factor in all of the corporate restructuring activities led by Eddie Lampert. Ostensibly, quarterly earnings indicated impressive improvements, but dig a little deeper and youll note that the performance was driven by favorable weather and store closings. The weather helped the apparel and home improvement sales, though non-apparel comps were still negative, and margins were up due to store clearouts, which we point out is non-recurring. Since we identify these two items as the main source of the quarters outperformance, we think that sustaining this will be a challenge moving forward.

That being said, we think that when looking at SHLD the focus should be on cash flow and asset value as opposed to quarter to quarter operating performance. The company is selling assetsSHLDs partial Canada spinoff occurred last quarter and a liquidity event for the Lands End brand seems on the horizon. However, in spite of these sales/spinoffs, we believe that cash flow will stay negative in the next couple of years. The question for investors is whether or not they believe that the fundamental asset values (i.e., liquidation value) warrants a higher stock price. We are not of that opinion.

Jefferies: JEF has been aggressively expanding the company. Last quarter, JEF acquired Hoare Govett, the U.K. corporate brokerage house, and bulked up its Bache platform. Management has its eyes on Europe for near-term expansion opportunities as new regulatory schemes in the US (e.g., Dodd-Frank) have propelled banks to turn their efforts toward home markets.

JEF has made significant strides in gaining market share in new product groups. Fixed income trading saw a nice rebound with increased customer order flow and favorable spreads. Importantly, leverage has been managed effectively, down from 9.9x in FY 2011 to 9.5x. We note that JEFs average total assets were 22% higher q-o-q; we think that it is reasonable to assume that management will continue to be aggressive in acquiring companies. At 13.5x forward earnings, JEF already trades at a premium to bulge bracket competitors like Goldman Sachs (consensus estimates of 9.5x) and Morgan Stanley (consensus estimates of 8.6x). Therefore, we think upside potential is limited.

Wells Fargo: We took away many positives from the quarterly results. For one, WFC is in a position to make strategic asset acquisitions. It acquired between $5 to $6 billion in loans in Q1 and the latter half of last year. WFC boats high liquidity and a strong balance sheet (credit metrics include an improving FICO score mix and the loan to value (LTV) mix), leaving it with what we think is ample capacity to buy more loans.

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I am not a very old-school Rubyist. My involvement dates from 2005 when I, along with many of my Extreme Programming (XP) colleagues, joined the Great Rails Bandwagon. It is telling that so many of the people who became involved around that time were from the Agile/XP community. We were sick of the mountains of glue code and XML configuration that stood in the way of us getting things done in Enterprise Java.

Those were heady days. The Metaprogrammability dynamic typing, and introduction of patterns such as Convention Over Configuration that was provided by the combination of Ruby and Rails gave us speedy, concise code. The test-driven discipline that was built into the language, framework, and the community gave us disciplined and verified code. Behaviour Driven Development, which had been struggling to survive in Java (JBehave anyone?) emerged and thrived in Ruby: Rspec was an early hit followed by Cucumber. To this day, the best Ruby Shops are also Agile/XP shops, while the others aspire to be so.

Fast forward to 2012 and the revolution is over. Ruby development has grown up and entered the mainstream, or at least the mainstream has shifted. While penetration of traditional enterprises such as banks is not great, Ruby startups such as LivingSocial and Groupon have grown into large corporations. The key moment that showed that Ruby had become mainstream was when Salesforce.com acquired Heroku in December 2010, and the message was reinforced the following July, when Ruby's designer, Matz (Yukihiro Matsumoto) was hired as Heroku's chief architect, Ruby.

Anecdotally, Rails has become the de-facto web technology for web startups. This growing success has not changed the community a great deal: it is still one that cares about craftsmanship, loves trying different languages such as Clojure and Erlang, and is grass-roots driven with a wide number of regional conferences.

Most Ruby development these days is still Rails, but we are entering an era of Rails backlash. The simple opinionated Model View Controller architecture that was so attractive in 2005, is now criticised for its lack of a layered architecture with proper separation of concerns. Yehuda Katz, the driving force behind Rails 3, quipped on Twitter:

My hope and belief is that the Ruby on Rails community is mature and reflective enough to introduce just the right amount of architecture back into web development, without reinventing Enterprise Java Beans. The signs for this are good with the upcoming Hexagonal Rails talk at the Scottish Ruby Conference; Avdi Grimm's Objects on Rails and Steven Baker's Solid Rails.

While most Ruby programmers do the bulk of their work on Rails, it's important to remember that Rails is just a web framework. The language ecosystem has changed a lot too, in the last seven years. In 2005 there was effectively only one Ruby interpreter Matz's C-based implementation. In 2012 we have a wide choice:

Seventeen years since its first appearance, and eight years from the Rails revolution, the Ruby community is still an exciting place to be. With all the current activity, and innovations coming to fruition, I don't see that changing any time soon.

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The future of Ruby

The public pension system has to be transformed into a structure based on the principle of accumulation in personal accounts, the money collected set to be used as a state development fund, on efficiency principles, not for covering black holes, Labor Minister Mariana Campeanu stated, Mediafax informs. Attending an insurance conference in Sinaia yesterday, she stated that the money accumulated in the participants accounts will be used as a state development fund. Campeanu pointed out that the private management of the process of contributions started well and has good results. Moreover, Cornelia Coman, President of the Association for Privately Managed Pensions in Romania (APAPR), stated yesterday that the development potential of the optional pensions market (Pillar III) is very high, approximately 3.5 million persons having the necessary funds to pay contributions to this system. At the end of April, the net assets of the 11 funds present on the optional pensions market totalled RON 495 M, while the number of participants reached 271,441, the Private Pension System Supervisory Commission (CSSPP) shows. Nine funds are present on the compulsory private pensions market (Pillar II), having 5.63 million participants and net assets of RON 7.5 bln.

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DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Dublin - Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/ss7vvg/analysis_of_the_pe) has announced the addition of Frost & Sullivan's new report "Analysis of the Personal Care Packaging Market: A positive scenario for a growing industry" to their offering.

This study analyzes the plastic, glass, and aluminum packaging segments of the personal care market in Argentina from base year 2011 to the end of the forecast period (2018). The market is growing along with demand for certain products. Factors stimulating growth include: stable economic conditions, growth in the gross domestic product rate, and government subsidies. However, some restraints include rising prices for raw materials, such as oil, and greater bargaining power for buyers.

Executive Summary Sample:

Some of the PC packaging market drivers are:

- A high level of consumer spending

- A high level of new product introduction

- A high exchange rate, which stimulates local production

Some of the PC packaging market's main restraints are:

- Rising costs for raw materials and energy

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Research and Markets: Analysis of the Personal Care Packaging Market: a Positive Scenario for a Growing Industry

DELRAY BEACH, Fla., May 21, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Synergy Systems recently contracted RealTime Marketing Group to design a website that offers better representation of their brand. Synergy Systems Delray Beach is a state-of-the art, private personal training studio that features medical grade MedX equipment. Synergy Systems incorporates VO2 metabolic testing and evaluation with a scientific approach to weight loss and athletic development that are individually developed and customized for each client's success.

The new website features information on the facility and equipment, as well as the ability to schedule a training session online. CEO of RealTime, Terra Spero, commented, "Synergy Systems uses advanced training methods to achieve the maximum results for their clients in the least amount of time. This is not your ordinary personal trainer, and they now have a digital presence that portrays that."

For more information on Synergy Systems Delray, visit their website at http://www.synergysystemsdelray.com/

To see what RealTime Marketing Group can do for your online presence visit http://realtimemg.com/

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Delray Beach Personal Training Studio Rebrands Digital Presence

SALT LAKE CITY, May 22, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --USANA Health Sciences, Inc. (USNA), a global nutritional supplement company, today announced the promotion of Dr. John Cuomo to executive director of global research and development and Dr. Brian Dixon to executive director of new product and technological innovation. Additionally, Dr. Nancy Steely, a licensed naturopathic physician, Mark Levy, a Ph.D. in human nutrition, and John Bosse, a registered dietitian, certified personal trainer and adjunct professor at the University of Utah, have joined USANA's growing staff of scientific experts.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110110/LA27593LOGO)

Dr. Cuomo will be heavily involved in the building of a USANA research and development laboratory in Singapore, and he will continue to work on the company's expansion into China. He holds more than 20 U.S. and European patents, is the author of numerous scientific papers, and brings decades of expertise to USANA's research and development team in the areas of synthetic organic chemistry, manufacturing, and analytical methods.

"Science is the foundation of our business, and as USANA continues to grow, we are expanding our scientific team to meet increasing demand for new products and research," says Dr. Cuomo. "Health and wellness is a $600-billion-dollar global industry that continues to trend toward prevention, and we are prepared for continued growth."

Dr. Dixon will be taking on additional responsibilities in new product development, clinical research, and technology innovation. He earned a Ph.D. in molecular and cellular biology from Oregon State University's Linus Pauling Institute, where his research focused on the underlying biochemical and cellular mechanisms of aging.

"USANA is unlike other nutritional companies," says Dr. Dixon. "Few supplement companies make the kind of investment we do in scientific research, strategic partnerships, product development and technological innovation."

Licensed naturopathic physician, Dr. Nancy Steely, is a graduate of the world-renowned Bastyr University, and has been a holistic health care practitioner since 2000. She has joined USANA as a senior scientist who will be involved in all aspects of product development with a focus on formulations.

Dr. Mark Levy, a Ph.D. in human nutrition from Ohio State University, also holds a master's degree in nutritional sciences from the University of Guelph, and a bachelor's degree in food science and biology from Acadia University. Dr. Levy's role as a senior scientist is primarily to research, test, and innovate nutritional compounds for their efficacy in promoting long-term human health.

John Bosse is a registered dietitian and NSCA Certified Personal Trainer who specializes in sports nutrition. Bosse received his Master's Degree in Sports Dietetics from the University of Utah and a Bachelor's Degree in Exercise Science from Colby-Sawyer College. He has taken on the role as senior scientist for product innovation and is involved in research and development of new products and technologies to help USANA stay at the forefront of the nutritional industry.

"The specialties of our new research and development staff are so diverse that we are certain they will bring new innovations and insights to our company as we surpass our 20 years in business," said Kevin Guest, USANA's president of the Americas and Europe.

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USANA Health Sciences Expands Award-Winning Research and Development Team

Illustration by Keith Shore

By Mark C. Taylor 2012-05-21T23:00:24Z

In the coming decade, emerging technologies will thoroughly transform higher education. Although distance learning and computer-assisted education have been around since the 1960s, financial pressures are forcing institutions to develop aggressive online programs.

When education goes online, how professors teach, what students learn and how institutions are structured will change significantly.

Some changes are well under way. In 2009, about 29 percent of college students took at least one course online; by 2014, that number is projected to increase to 50 percent. Much of this growth has been driven by for-profit schools, but in the past couple of years, traditional colleges and universities have designed their own programs in an effort to increase tuition income without expanding the physical plant. It remains to be seen whether this financial bet will pay off.

The most promising initiatives involve cooperation between and among schools. Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University recently announced a $60 million initiative to create edX, described as a transformational partnership in online education that will enhance campus-based teaching and learning and build a global community of online learners. Through video and immediate feedback, students will be able to take online versions of MIT and Harvard courses that include exams, papers and even laboratories.

Two Stanford University computer scientists secured $16 million in venture capital to create a new company named Coursera, which will distribute online interactive courses in the humanities, social sciences and engineering. They were inspired by the wildly popular Khan Academy, which offers more than 3,100 micro-lectures on a broad range of subjects, and by the extraordinary success of a class taught by their Stanford colleague Sebastian Thrun that attracted 160,000 students from 190 countries. The new venture will include Stanford, the University of Michigan, the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University. Thrun himself cofounded the online university Udacity.

Many people within and beyond the academy are skeptical about distance learning and online education. The resistance of faculty members has been the greatest obstacle to the development of effective Web-based learning. While it is true that seminars and small discussion classes cant be taught online, they can be taught effectively using teleconferencing. Two of the most successful courses I have taught were teleseminars with the University of Helsinki in 1992 -- with incoming and outgoing images of the class and myself projected onto a small television screen -- and the University of Melbourne in 1996.

However effective face-to-face classes might be, the reality is that this traditional model is simply unaffordable for most students. In addition, more and more students are working and dont have time for place-based education. Only 15 percent to 18 percent of students in post-secondary education fit the profile of 18- to 22-year-olds residing on campus. For the 85 percent so-called nontraditional students, it is necessary to develop effective alternatives.

The move from the real to the virtual classroom involves fundamental changes. Education is shifting from a mass- production model to one based on what business calls mass customization. This transformation raises rarely asked questions: Why is college duration four years? Why is every course the same length? Why does graduation depend on the completion of a specified number of courses or credits?

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College Crackup and the Online Future

FOSTER CITY, Calif., May 21, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- QuinStreet, Inc. (Nasdaq:QNST - News), a leader in vertical marketing and media online, has opened operations in Sao Paulo, Brazil to serve education clients. This move recognizes the size and importance of the Brazilian education market, as well as rapidly growing consumer demand for higher education information online.

QuinStreet brings over twelve years of experience and leadership in online marketing and media for education to Brazil, and is committed to developing the Internet as an effective, vital channel for prospective students and education marketers. QuinStreet provides Brazilian education clients with a superior online qualified inquiry generation service across a portfolio of high-quality media properties. QuinStreet's Brazilian-owned and operated media portfolio includes MundoVestibular.com.br, GuiadaCarreira.com.br and PasseiWeb.com, and the company partners with a growing network of publishers. In addition, QuinStreet staff handle pay-per-click (PPC) marketing, email marketing and social media marketing for local clients.

"QuinStreet now operates a leading education media portfolio in Brazil," says Pedro Yue, Director of Brazilian operations for QuinStreet. "We help our clients by developing online marketing channels that yield results, and we are able to measure and optimize them over time -- which has been the biggest value-add for most clients."

QuinStreet websites currently reach between 3 and 5 million Brazilian readers monthly. These media properties engage potential students by providing detailed information about campus and distance degree programs, application processes, entrance exams, and career paths.

"Brazil's post-secondary education is going through a unique period of growth and quality improvement, driven by an escalation in student demand and industry consolidation," says Ryon Braga, president of Hoper Educacao. "With increasingly professional management and competitiveness, Brazilian universities have discovered that performance marketing's efficiency is far superior to that of traditional advertising strategies used in student acquisition."

Brazil is an exciting market for QuinStreet. There is unprecedented demand for consumer information about higher education, with the opportunity for continued strong growth. Education is a $15 billion industry in Brazil with approximately $500 million spent annually on marketing. The country has more than 2,000 private colleges and schools. Internet penetration in Brazil is estimated to be 40 percent of the population, roughly half the U.S. rate. Moreover, Brazil has one of the fastest-growing economies in the world and a population of nearly 200 million people.

"The education market in Brazil shares many of the same characteristics as the U.S. market of ten years ago," says Doug Valenti, QuinStreet's CEO. "There is clear potential for significant growth over the long term. We are excited to be working with clients at this early stage to dramatically expand their marketing reach."

"When performance marketing occupies a featured spot in Brazilian universities' strategies, QuinStreet will certainly lead this movement, bringing its U.S. experience with effective processes and tools and generating better cost/benefit results relative to local players," says Braga. "In a short time, QuinStreet may become the brand of reference and a synonym for high-performance marketing in the Brazilian education industry."

QuinStreet is currently serving a broad base of schools in Brazil, including the two largest institutions: Anhanguera, with 445,000 students, and Kroton, with over 320,000 students. QuinStreet will continue to focus on expanding its client base and building its media presence in Brazil.

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QuinStreet Expands Education Operations to Serve Brazilian Market

Aerobics

CARDIO BASICS: 5:30 p.m. Monday and Wednesday; CARDIO CROSS TRAINING: 5:15 p.m., Tuesday and Thursday, Daytona State College, Building 320, Room 018, 1200 W. International Speedway Blvd., Daytona Beach. $18-$30 for six-week session. 386-506-3830.

CARDIO REBOUNDING: 45-minute low-impact workout to music using mini trampolines, The Pilates Spot, 1730 Dunlawton Ave., No. 2, Port Orange. Six classes, $144. 386-322-4050; ThePilatesSpot.com

GET ACTIVE! GROUP ACTIVE!: 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, Gold's Gym, 333 W. Granada Blvd., Suite 200, Ormond Beach. $10 per session, first class free. 386-677-4949.

JAZZERCISE: low and high impact options, 9:30 a.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Port Orange Gymnasium, 4655 City Center Circle, Port Orange; 6 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Atlantic High School, Dance Room, 1250 Reed Canal Road, Port Orange. $40-$45 monthly; $10 walk-in; first class free. 386-767-9505; jazzercise.com

JAZZERCISE: 9:30 a.m. Monday-Saturday; 4:45 p.m., 5:45 p.m. and 6:45 p.m. Monday-Thursday, SWV Jazzercise Center, 3063 Enterprise Road, #24, DeBary. Prices begin at $20.12 month; $25 joining fee. 386-848-3446; jazzercise.com

JAZZERCISE LITE ORMOND BEACH: low impact, all ages and fitness levels, 9 a.m. Monday-Saturday and 5:45 p.m. Thursday, Nova Community Center, 440 N. Nova Road, Ormond Beach and 5:45 p.m. Monday and Wednesday, South Ormond Neighborhood Center, 176 Division Ave., Ormond Beach. New students $44 mo. unlimited; $10 walk-ins. 386-451-8753; jazzercise.com

Aqua Classes

AMERICAN RED CROSS SWIMMING LESSONS: for all ages. S.S. & Company Water Fitness. Call 386-986-5655 for times and locations.

DYNOSWIM MASTERS' SWIMMING TEAM: for ages 18 and older, meets Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Frieda Zamba pool, Palm Coast. Fees apply. 386-586-3437.

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Fitness calendar

By Marc Anthony Reyes Philippine Daily Inquirer

CHRISTOPHER Quevedo needed little time to shake off his rust while Charmaine Dolar delivered as expected as they ruled the senior aerobics events of gymnastics in the POC-PSC National Games yesterday at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex.

Quevedo only had a fews days to practice as he was busy finishing his education degree at Philippine Normal University, but he still proved worthy of the gold medal after amassing 18 points.

The 21-year-old Quevedo, from Tandag, Surigao del Sur, beat former teammate Lester Go, who tallied 17.3 points, while John Boy Amangas of Marikina City wound up third with 16.8 points.

Dolar, a senior education student at University of the East, was hardly threatened as she wowed the judges with her routine moves. She also ruled the recent Suzuki Cup world sports aerobics championships in Tokyo.

She piled up 23.15 points to repeat as champion after topping the event last year in Bacolod.

Dolars teammate Lynette Moreno (20.65) and Jhennylo Gacula (20.6) settled for the silver and bronze medals, respectively.

The gymnastics events were being held at the Gymnastics Association of the Philippines gym inside the RMSC ahead of the PNG which fires off May 25 in Dumaguete, Laguna and Metro Manila.

Former national pool member Jan Freddielu Betita, 17, grabbed the boys group 2 gold (16.8) while newcomer Austin Domingo lorded it over the boys age-group 1 bracket. (9.5 points).

Jasmin Yu of Calamba City (15.3) and Kelly Dionisio-See of Pasay City (15.65) snared the golds in the girls age-group 2 and age-group 1, respectively.

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Quevedo, Dolar rule PNG aerobics