Competition is another big yellow flag for Yandex. Although Yandex and Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) do share some partnerships outside of Russia and on its English website, they are fiercely competitive within Russia. Yandex has done a remarkable job of garnering mobile market share in Russia, but I find it unlikely that Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) will simply lay down and allow Yandex to reap these rewards without putting up a fight. Google has considerably more cash to throw at product development and has practically written the book on optimizing search profits in the U.S.
At 26 times cash flow, Yandex looks like it has “avoid” written all over it.
Is this rally about Dun?
Shareholders in Dun & Bradstreet Corp (NYSE:DNB), a risk management solutions provider that helps businesses better understand their financial risks and optimize their supply chains, are certainly on cloud nine after it hit a new all-time split-adjusted closing high yesterday. But the thing about clouds is that they sometimes produce rain.
Dun & Bradstreet Corp (NYSE:DNB) investors should be particularly concerned about the company’s recent lack of growth, especially in the wake of slowing growth in China, austerity-induced contraction in some European countries, and the potential for a slowdown in the U.S. once QE3 gets pared back. In the first quarter, Dun & Bradstreet’s total revenue on a GAAP basis fell 5% as foreign exchange rates negatively affected its top line.
D&B has been doing its best to mask its lack of growth by paying out consistent dividends and repurchasing its own shares to help drive up its EPS. The reality of the matter is that without global growth, D&B may struggle to gain new clientele, with the past quarter’s revenue decline proving this to be true. D&B may not seem particularly expensive at 13 times forward earnings, but with revenue expected to contract fractionally this year and grow by less than 3% next year, it’s not encouraging, either.
I’d consider thinking twice about risk-management companies at the point in time.
Foolish roundup
Sometimes it’s as simple as shareholders’ optimism and hope getting the better of them, and I think that’s what we’re seeing in all three instances this week.
I’m so confident in my three calls that I plan to make a CAPScall of underperform on each one. The question is: Would you do the same?
The article 3 Stocks Near 52-Week Highs Worth Selling originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Sean Williams.
Fool contributor Sean Williams has no material interest in any companies mentioned in this article. You can follow him on CAPS under the screen name TMFUltraLong, track every pick he makes under the screen name TrackUltraLong, and check him out on Twitter, where he goes by the handle @TMFUltraLong.The Motley Fool owns shares of, and recommends, Google. It also recommends Cisco Systems and Yandex.
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