Using a more focused version of crowdsourcing, $5 billion Lead Edge Capital taps the expertise and connections of its 700 individual investors to produce superior returns. By Hank Tucker, Forbes Staff When Lead Edge Capital was considering investing in Toast in 2017, Brian Neider, a partner who has been at the firm since 2012, asked its network of limited partners to connect him with people in the restaurant industry that could help him evaluate the business which makes point-of-sale payments software for restaurants. “We got about 50 responses—when you ask a lot of wealthy people if they know folks that…

President-elect Donald Trump’s U.S. tariff threat has added to the woes of investors in the European auto industry, which include possible strikes, factory closures, a weak economy, Chinese competition and the self-inflicted CO2 problem. Volkswagen faces a strike as it seeks to shut factories in Germany to keep costs under control. Other leading manufacturers in Europe face the same pressures. Profits are being squeezed as the European economy sputters and sales stagnate, particularly in the most important market, Germany. Then there is the electric vehicle conundrum. This has a couple of controversal aspects. Can the harsh program of the European…

Many people I’ve spoken with recently have expressed interest in purchasing homes abroad. Reasons vary widely between gaining a path to citizenship in another country, a desire for a vacation home, wanting to own something without paying United States prices, and more. If you’re in the United States and have your sights set on purchasing a property abroad, here are the steps and some pitfalls to be aware of. Step One: Decide What You’re Looking For Ultimately, you want to figure out your goal for the purchase before you even begin to do research. Too often, people get distracted by…

Shares in easyJet rose on Wednesday as a record summer, helped by strong demand for its package holidays, propelled full-year profits sharply higher. At 555p per share, easyJet was last 2.7% higher in midweek trade, making it the FTSE 100’s biggest gainer. Revenues rose 14% in the 12 months to September, to £9.3 billion, the low-cost flyer said. Pre-tax profit leapt 34% to £610 million, with the business enjoying record-profits of £910 million in the second half. easyJet said its revenues jump was “due to an increase of 8% in capacity to 100.4 million seats,” combined with “the continued growth…

In trading on Tuesday, shares of Microsoft crossed above their 200 day moving average of $421.82, changing hands as high as $426.44 per share. Microsoft shares are currently trading up about 1.8% on the day. Start slideshow: 10 Stocks Crossing Above Their 200 Day Moving Average » The chart below shows the one year performance of MSFT shares, versus its 200 day moving average: Looking at the chart above, MSFT’s low point in its 52 week range is $362.90 per share, with $468.35 as the 52 week high point — that compares with a last trade of $425.80. The MSFT…

The Board of Directors of Hormel Foods, a Fortune 500 global branded food company, today announced a 3 percent increase to the annual dividend to shareholders, marking the 59th consecutive annual dividend increase. The annual dividend on the common stock of the Corporation was raised to $1.16 per share from $1.13 per share. The Board of Directors authorized the first quarterly dividend of 29.00 cents a share to be paid on February 18, 2025, to stockholders of record at the close of business on January 13, 2025. The February 18, 2025 payment will be the 386th consecutive quarterly dividend paid…

Key News Asian equities were a sea of red except for Hong Kong, which managed to end in the green. President Trump’s tariff threat on China, Canada, and Mexico (if they don’t address drug and immigration) roiled Asia markets, and the Bessent nomination rally lasted a day. Stepping up fentanyl ingredient export controls is an area in which the US and China are apt to find common ground, having done so previously, i.e., an easy win. By far the most important item today and arguably this month that you aren’t going to read anywhere else is the increase in Mainland…

CEFs are renowned (by the few people who know about these high-income funds, of course!) for their outsized dividends—around 8%, on average, across the board as I write this. But buying a CEF is not like buying a regular stock. When it comes to picking CEFs, we’ve got a whole bunch of different factors sitting in front of us that we need to weigh. Sometimes CEFs Are Cheap for a Reason There are, for example, some things that go beyond, say, past performance or discounts to net asset value (NAV, or the value of a fund’s portfolio—the main measure of…

The Consumer Price Index report for November will be released on December 11. Inflation is down substantially from peak levels, the key question is when and if inflation will hit the Federal Reserve’s 2% annual target. Inflation nowcasting suggests that headline inflation may see another increase to a 2.7% annual rate, that would be an increase from October’s 2.6%. Core inflation, which excludes food and energy, may remain at 3.3%. That would be the same level as October. These nowcasts are produced by the Cleveland Federal Reserve. Overall the November CPI report may not be particularly reassuring to the Fed,…

How to cure a sagging stock price? For a growing number of micro-caps, it’s as easy as buying bitcoin and announcing it to the world. By Steven Ehrlich, Forbes Staff In late 2021, Semler Scientific, a promising Santa Clara-based medical technology company, was facing a world of trouble. Growth was slowing and the tiny company had just missed its Q3 revenue and earnings targets. Wall Street punished the stock, sending it 80% lower, as it was caught in the Nasdaq downdraft of early 2022 over inflationary fears and Fed tightening. Then in 2023, after $800 million of its $1 billion…