By: Mahir Jethanandani

The world’s most famous coffee chain, Starbucks, dominates its competition, with 17,500 company and licensed stores. Their unparallel customer service and brand name recognition is similar to Apple’s—high quality products deemed luxurious and superior. Their prevalent position in the refreshment-restaurant business allows Starbucks to compete with authoritative economic moats; compared to rivals Dunkin’ Donuts and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters.

By: Dixon Liang, Carnegie Mellon University

On Tuesday, Apple released its financial results for its fiscal second quarter ended March 30^th, 2013. The company reported revenue of 43.6 billion, and net profit of 9.5 billion, or $10.09 per diluted share. These results compare to the second quarter a year ago of 39.2 billion, and net profit of 11.6 billion, or $12.30 per diluted share. Gross margins have contracted from 47.4% to 37.5% compared to a year ago. Among its announcements, Apple has decided on returning $100 billion to shareholders by the end of 2015 in the form of a 15% dividend increase and increasing its share buyback program. Following its results on Tuesday, Apple stock closed at $406.13, but after hours trading led the stock down to 399.18. Over the past six months, Apple has seen its stock hit all-time highs of just over $700 and fall back down to just under $400, levels not seen since late 2011. In addition to the quarter results, CEO Tim Cook released guidelines for the next quarter. Key numbers include revenue estimates of $33.5 to 35.5 billion and gross margin between 36 to 37%. With these guidelines, Apple’s contraction of revenue and margins will continue.

By: Kristoffer Gredsted, Copenhagen University (FInanceLab)

Given that one of the EU’s larger legislative reactions to the financial crises, Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive, has to be incorporated into the national legislation of EU Member States by July of this year, this article will give an overview of the objectives and legislative background of this directive as well as its relation to private equity funds in particular.

By: Manny Garber, Carnegie Mellon University

Massive urban developments used to be the norm in the United States. In the 1940s through 1970s, many American cities still had the room to undergo massive development projects in areas of their cities that were empty, open land. However since the 1980s that land has become urbanized, and very few vacant swaths of land remain in modern urban America.

Until this week it looked like two more of those large urban spaces would soon become apart of this trend of urbanization. In San Francisco, the very last two un-urbanized areas in the city were poised for development by the Lennar Corporation, one of the country’s largest homebuilders with total assets over $10.25 billion. The project spans Treasure Island, a vacant island in the middle of San Francisco Bay and the vacant Hunters Point Navy Shipyard in the southeast of the city. The land has been entitled for up to 18,000 housing units, hundreds of thousands of square feet of office and retail, and 300 acres of parkland. The project would increase the housing stock in the city by 5.2%. The project would truly change the city’s landscape by providing more desperately needed housing and office space, and also improve the city’s waterfront and parks. The project would cost $1.7 billion to build with unknown billions in returns.

Bulls & Bears Press is happy to announce that we have started a collaboration with FinanceLab. FinanceLab is a non-profit organization for ambitious students, who are interested in the world of finance based in Europe. The Investment Panel and other member services are financed by the earnings from courses and partnerships. FinanceLab is the place where students interested in finance can share their ideas and benefit from others’ specific individual areas of expertise and interest. One of their marquee events is a trip for students to London to visit the top 10 banks in the city and network with finance professionals. Their research blog covers a multitude a topics in finance from investment ideas to market analysis.

 “FinanceLab is the perfect opportunity for us to expand our reach to Europe. Within just a few years they have created a strong network with banks, especially in London, and they now have a large membership database with more than 1,300 members. In particular we are impressed with their Investment Panel managing real funds and the analyses they are publishing.

- Dixon Liang, Director at Bulls and Bears Press.

 “Bulls and Bears Press has an impressive reach within the US. With the distribution of their magazine to more than 60 universities, including several Ivy League universities, they have created a unique brand. This collaboration is a great opportunity for members of FinanceLab to gain exposure and expand their network in the US market.”

- Emil Plagborg-Møller, Board Member of FinanceLab

 Both parties are very excited about this partnership, as the reach of both organizations is now truely worldwide.

We highly recommend you visit their website at http://www.financelab.dk/

Despite all of the negative press surrounding the company, and the bleak prospects for the future, Affymax still provides a high risk – high reward opportunity. The company was partnered with Takeda Pharmaceuticals in the production and distribution of Omontys. If Takeda stays with its partnership with Affymax, the company’s recovery chances, however slim they are now, would improve. In addition, Affymax announced that it still had $67 million cash as of the end of February. If Affymax is able to get the drug back onto the market before it runs out of cash, the stock could offer hefty rewards for those confident enough to buy the stock now. Even if the share price rises to half of what it is before, investors would still be rewarded with returns upwards of 500%. Investors may even be rewarded if the company is bought out by another pharmaceutical company. At the same time, there is a very high chance that the company decides to liquidate itself instead or simply runs out of cash before successfully putting Omontys back on the market. At the moment, Affymax is a classic case of a high risk – high rewards. Depending on developments over the next few weeks or months, Affymax will either reverse its track towards recovery or continue at a growing pace towards its end.

By: Borui Xu, Carnegie Mellon University

Earlier this year, the idea was tossed around to mint a $1 trillion platinum coin to help pay off American debt. However, while the $1 trillion coin idea has faded away, the dollar coin idea could take its place. America minted the dollar coin for a period of time, but consumers have maintained a preference for the dollar bill, and the dollar coin is not widely encountered. Since 2011, the Treasury has stopped production of the dollar coin, and around $1.4 billion of the coins sit idly in the vaults of the Federal Reserve.

By: Manny Garber, Carnegie Mellon University

An important sector of the market to watch in 2013 will be the real estate market, and more importantly real estate investment trusts (REITs) as their popularity as good investments has grown in recent years. A REIT is a corporation that acts as an investment intermediary specializing in the field of real estate. Most REITs are categorized by the type of real estate they invest in. Some REITs such as Boston Properties, Brandywine Realty Trust and SL Green specialize in office real estate, while others such as AvalonBay Communities and Colonial Property Trust specialize in residential real estate. REITs can further be broken down by which area of the country they invest in most heavily. Although REITs are extremely popular nowadays, the real estate market has become a volatile one, so what makes REITs such a good investment and why are they so important to watch.