Sam Isaly’s Orbimed Advisors focuses on healthcare investments, and it has now disclosed a change to its holdings of Response Biomedical Corp. (ADR)(OTCBB:RPBIF), a rapid on-site diagnostic test provider. The fund now holds 53.3% of the micro-cap’s outstanding shares, down from the 54.6% stake it last reported in 2012.

Disclosure: none

Paul Singer and his mega-hedge fund, Elliott Associates, has just reiterated its 6.4% stake in Emulex Corporation (NYSE:ELX), while disclosing a letter agreement with the company. Here are the contents of the agreement:

Pursuant to the terms of the Letter Agreement, the Issuer agreed that prior to filing its proxy materials for the next meeting of stockholders at which members of the Issuer's Board of Directors (the "Board") will be elected (the "Next Stockholders Meeting"), the Board (and the Nominating/Corporate Governance Committee and/or an authorized subcommittee thereof) will, among other things, take such actions as necessary to (i) decrease (effective as of immediately prior to the Next Stockholders Meeting and continuing until the Expiration Date, as defined below), the size of the Board to no more than 11, (ii) nominate no more than eight individuals who are currently members of the Board (the "Existing Director Nominees"), including Eugene J. Frantz and Gregory S. Clark (the "New Members"), for election to the Board at the Next Stockholders Meeting, and (iii) nominate for election to the Board at the Next Stockholders Meeting three individuals from the group of candidates previously identified by the Board and the Reporting Persons(the "Designated Nominees" and, together with the Existing Director Nominees, the "Issuer Nominees").  

After postponing the launch of their long-rumored TV, it looks like Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is looking for a job in advertising. The company is launching the iBeacon, a device that will be able to give retailers and service businesses a new tool in advertising. Is this Apple's next big business move? It seems that Apple may be the best positioned company for local ad industries, leaving out of the competition some other companies trying to dominate the early local ad industry. Its main target: Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG).

What is Google doing?

Google advertises on web services. It is working on improving the GPS data on its Google Adwords campaigns. This decision was made in order to increase the number of advertising purchases. Both companies are trying to improve the usability of the local ads using Micro-Map internal locations. However, with its roll-out of local advertising, the approach by Apple is a bit different.

Apple's plan

Apple is pulling out all the stops: its plan would use low-energy Bluetooth and iCloud. This method will enable the delivery of ads when customers pass near a shop. You will also get ads inside restaurants and bars. Its best feature? It consumes a really small amount of battery power. You will also be able to pay your checks without making contact with other human beings. You will have a personal electronic cash register on your iPhone: you will get to scan items and pay them with just a click (or a touch, in this case). The iBeacon and its technology seem revolutionary enough to provide new digital retail opportunities and advancements and an improved shopping experience. The device will roll out first in Apple Stores and then in other outlets.

Check out this video to learn more about the iBeacon and all the benefits it will bring to your everyday life:

Apple's next step?

iBeacons seem to be a good way to reignite investor enthusiasm. But this would also mean a completely new direction for Apple, that makes most of its profits from selling hardware. In recent months, those selling numbers have been going down and it seems like the Cupertino-based company is looking for a new way to improve its software sales.

So the question then becomes, with the ball now in the other court, what might Google do to respond? Can this ceonept by Apple win over smartphone users and advertisers?

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In a newly amended 13G filing with the SEC, Eric Bannasch’s Cadian Capital has disclosed lowering its position in LogMeIn Inc (NASDAQ:LOGM) to 9.7% of its outstanding shares. In its last 13F filing over the summer, Cadian reported a stake in excess of 10%, totaling 3.6 million shares. The hedge fund now holds just over 2.3 million shares of LogMeIn stock.

Disclosure: none

Glenn Greenberg’s Brave Warrior Capital has reported selling some shares of Higher One Holdings, Inc (NYSE:ONE), reducing its activist stake to around 3.15 million shares, equal to 6.7% of the company’s common stock. Earlier in October, Brave Warrior increased its position in Higher One to some 6.64 million shares.

Disclosure: none

The Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone might be getting stickier among smartphone users than it used to be. Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) conducted a new survey that has thrown some interesting new statistics. Numbers show that Apple might be "stealing" former users of the Android platform by Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG). Apple's representatives have formally stated that they're not into growing their market share exponentially, so the numbers thrown by the CIRP survey seem to show that whatever is happening might be unintentional, shall we say.

Is it really "stealing"?

CIRP interviewed 400 new iPhone 5S and 5C buyers and found out that more than 20 percent of those surveyed were upgrading from Google Android devices. Interestingly, this is a significant upgrade, since the influx of customers moving towards Apple's OS from Android was about 16 percent last year. Mike Levin, CIRP partner and co-founder, said that "ideally, Apple attracts a significant percent of its customers from Android and other systems." If one looks at the entire report, it comes out that 20 percent of the converts Apple is seeing come from Samsung hardware customers. But are numbers the only thing to see?

It has been pointed out that the survey hasn't made a clear difference on what kind of Google Android devices these customers where users, neither on what version OS of Android their devices used. This point seems to bring some controversy to the idea of Apple's iPhone being more popular and "stealing" Android users. There might be some room for doubt. Not necessarily these customers were "abandoning" high-technology smartphones, it could just be they were upgrading a several-years-old Android device that used one of the earlier versions of Android.

The importance of loyalty

The company also saw a substantial increase in users coming from a previous iPhone during this year's most recent iPhone launch –the 5S and 5C devices. This might be the result of two things. One, there are very few customers left without a smartphone in the U.S. Two, Apple is known for being one of the brands that have the most loyal customers –and keeping them is one of the company's most precious goals.

The "stickiness" of the iOS ecosystem is a topic that can be easily overlooked when one tries to understand the significance of smartphone marketshare. Consumers are more likely to stick with brands and products that provide an enjoyable experience and also work for them. Apple is one of them. Although the figures thrown out by CIRP regarding smartphones marketshare might be informative, it is necessary to look beyond the numbers to come up with more significant information before calling Apple's iPhone a Google Android user thief.

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What's the first thing you do when you don't know the answer to something? You Google it.

Now, if that isn't enough for you, Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) has come out with a new service idea called "Helpouts" which was launched earlier this week.

"Real help, from real people, in real time"

This reads on the official webpage. Google Helpouts are a new way to give or receive help over a live video. Hence the simple goal: Help people help each other. "We want to use the convenience and efficiency of the web to enable everyone, no matter where they are or what time it is, to easily connect with someone who can help," Google wrote.

Art & Music, Computers & Electronics, Cooking, Education & Careers, Fashion & Beauty, Fitness and Nutrition, Health, Home & Garden are the featured categories in which to give or receive help. Help can be found for anything: a quick answer to a problem of the moment, or it can provide guidance to completing a project. Learn Spanish or a new skill, build a deck, improve your writing: it's all there one click away.

Helpouts have Featured Helpouts of the day. For example, on Veteran's Day, the new Google service honored its military veterans by highlighting Helpouts created just for them.

Is this Google's new random act of kindness?

Well, it might, but in a Google dream world this, however, is not a free-of-charge RAK. Though you might access some cost-free featured Helpouts, most times you'll have to pay for the benefit of having a brief one-on-one webcam master class. During it, you will be able to not only talk, but you can share your computer screen, collaboratively edit a presentation, or record your Helpout. This last point might come in handy in case your experience does not meet your expectations: only when evidence can be provided, Google offers a full money back guarantee.

Anywhere, anyone, anytime?

Anyone can access Helpouts anywhere –as long as they have an internet connection, they pay the fee and they download the Google chat software. However, if their selected choice of "helper" is not available at the moment, they will have to book an appointment –which can actually be convenient for both parties.

Providers of help and advice, however, are all individually approved by Google. The company currently has more than 1,000 – all of which had to go thorough a screening process before the service was launched. Helpout's providers include not only individuals who are experts on their topics, but also companies, such as Sephora, Redbeacon, Rosetta Stone, One Medical, and Weight Watchers, who can provide help and market their products at the same time. Customers who purchase this service can also help Google determine the quality of their providers, as they can also leave feedback, and users can see the ratings and comments left for each one of them.

Now, the answer to every problem you ever had is one click away. Google is transforming the old "Googling" into a new, more complete, profitable one.

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Robert Pitts‘ Steadfast Capital, after John Burbank and Passport Capital went into 58.com Inc. (NYSE:WUBA) last week, also disclosed a position in this newly public company. According to a filing with the SEC, Steadfast now holds a passive stake in the company, which contains slightly above 1.8 million Class A ordinary shares, equal to 7.61% of the class. The shares are held via a total of 904,377 ADR shares.

Disclosure: none

Samuel Isaly‘s hedge fund, Orbimed Advisors, decreased its stake in NxStage Medical, Inc. (NASDAQ:NXTM) to around 2.89 million shares, from 3.14 million held earlier. Following the decline in holdings, Orbimed’s position amasses 4.73% of NxStage’s common stock, versus 5.25% reported in an earlier filing.

Disclosure: none

Steven Cohen and his hedge fund, SAC Capital Advisors, just disclosed boosting their position in Vitamin Shoppe Inc (NYSE:VSI) to over 1.53 million shares, from only 99,190 shares disclosed in SAC’s latest 13F. The new stake represents 5% of Vitamin Shoppe’s common stock.

Disclosure: none

Julian and Felix Baker‘s hedge fund, Baker Bros. Advisors, now holds around 4.4 million shares of Viropharma Inc (NASDAQ:VPHM), a newly amended filing with the SEC has revealed. Baker Bros. has almost halved its exposure at the company from some 8.3 million shares disclosed in an earlier filing. The new stake amasses 6.7% of Viropharma’s outstanding stock.

Disclosure: none

The time for change is coming, and not only in the sense of technological innovation. Today, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) announced that it will finally be ridding employees of the controversial stack-ranking process. This evaluation technique was first applied to the company a decade ago, when Steve Ballmer took his seat as CEO of the tech giant. Now, it seems he's losing his power and popularity in the company, and so is his rating system.

But let's take a look at what stack-ranking is all about and what the Human Resources department has planned for the employees' future.

Bigger, better, faster, stronger

Global enterprises and corporations are famously known for expecting the best of their workforces, and then rewarding workers for their efforts. Simple and effective, right? Well, yes and no. When Microsoft CEO Ballmer decided to run the company on his stack-ranking system, he thought that he would be doing right by it. The technique was based on ranking employees by percentage into top performers, average or poor performers. It was supposed to rouse the passion for work among colleagues, but instead it backfired into backstabbing competition and grudges among the workforce, according to ex-staff.

If you don't make the cut, you're out

Now, we all know that hard work is eminent to achieving success, but collaboration, team work and growth are just as essential. Nevertheless, Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), is one of the many industry players that believes in narrowing in on the hard work only. But how useful can a ranking system be, that gets over 600 people fired in less than a month? This same thought probably went through the head of human resources chief Lisa Brummel when she looked at the stats and overall morale within Microsoft Corporation. And since no healthy business can run on unsatisfied employees, she decided to take a stand and say adios to Ballmer's stack-ranking.

The dawn of a new day

In a memo sent out today to the staff of Microsoft, Brummel explained that the focus is a "fundamentally new approach to performance and development designed to promote new levels of teamwork and agility for breakthrough business impact." As such, the team units at Microsoft will now be promoting teamwork and collaboration, instead of individual results. Pre-determined targeted budget boosts will be cut from the program, as well the overall ranking. And to top it off, the "Connects" program will actually allow each employee to get a personal performance review and tips for growth. So no more kicking the weak to the curb.

In two newly amended filings with the SEC, Earnest Partners reported two moves made into Astoria Financial Corp (NYSE:AF), and Meritage Homes Corp (NYSE:MTH). The first filing revealed that Earnest now holds slightly below 4.75 million shares of, down from 5.26 million shares held according to its latest 13F. The new stake amasses 4.8% of the outstanding shares of the company.

In Meritage, the fund increased its exposure to 1.93 million shares, which represent 5.3% of the common stock. In its latest 13F, Earnest disclosed holding 1.56 million shares.

Disclosure: none

Mario Gabelli‘s Gamco Investors has just revealed it is upping its position in Edgen Group Inc (NYSE:EDG). Gamco and Gabelli hold an aggregate of some 1.2 million shares, after reporting around 1 million shares a couple of weeks ago. The stake amasses around 6.31% of Edgen’s outstanding shares.

Disclosure: none

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In the U.S. equity markets, there are roughly 15,000 publicly traded companies, so it's understandable if some of these fall through the cracks. There are so many ways to parse down this universe, and in particular, we're thinking of one strategy that has beaten the market in the past. For dividend-seekers, though, one of the best ways to find investments ideas is to look at dividend growth streaks, and sometimes, unheralded industries often provide the best opportunities to find gems.

Take the gas utility industry, for example. There are a handful of companies operating in this space, but just two have increased their dividend payments for 40 or more consecutive years.

If that's not elite, we don't know what is.

While we don't recommend jumping into both names on blind historical faith alone, it's worth exploring each of them a bit to determine if dividends are sustainable, and if they'd make a good addition to your equity portfolio.

Northwest Natural Gas

We'll start with the best first. Northwest Natural Gas Co (NYSE:NWN) has grown its dividends in 57 straight years, which is the longest such streak in the gas utility industry. As its name suggests, Northwest Natural Gas is a natural gas distributor and storage provider that operates in the Pacific Northwest. According to the Motley Fool, the company has been J.D. Power's top-ranked Western U.S. utility provider in three of the past six years.

Northwest currently pays a dividend yield of 4.2% at a payout ratio of 85%, which is above the gas utility industry's 'sweet spot' of 70%. Generally speaking, it's widely understood that companies in this space prefer to keep at least 30% of their earnings available for non-regulated businesses, but positive earnings and free cash flow trends indicate there are no real read flags here.

Value investors like Ken Fisher and David Shaw are invested in Northwest, and shares aren't overly expensive at 18 times forward earnings. While there may be more attractive natural gas stocks from a valuation and growth standpoint, the income is nearly unmatched, especially in terms of the streak. An unusually cold January is expected in the Pacific Northwest next year, so we'll be watching if this affects the sentiment surrounding the company over the next few months.

Longer-term investors shouldn't worry about weather forecasts, though, just monitor that payout ratio. If it rises another ten percentage points or so, there may be reason to panic, but for now, the dividend growth streak should continue.

National Fuel Gas

National Fuel Gas Co. (NYSE:NFG), meanwhile, is the only other gas utility company that has grown dividends for 40 or more consecutive years; it's 43 to be exact. Unlike Northwest Natural Gas, National Fuel's market is in western New York and northwestern Pennsylvania, and it serves about 732,000 customers to Northwest's 700,000. The company pays a smaller dividend yield of 2.1% albeit at a more reasonable payout ratio between 40% and 50% of earnings.

As the lower payout ratio indicates, National Fuel has a greater portion of its earnings to dedicate to its unregulated businesses, which most analysts expect to register 15% to 20% revenue growth next year. Late last month, the company said that it expects oil and natural gas production during its 2014 fiscal year to increase between 20% and 37%, which on average, is 11 percentage points higher than its forecast just one quarter earlier. Much of this optimism is a result of increased drilling at National Fuel's Marcellus properties.

As is the case in the Pacific Northwest, most meteorologists expect a slightly worse winter to hit New York and Pennsylvania in comparison with long-term averages, particularly with regard to snowfall. We know that the supply side has been booming at National Fuel, but don't discount the possibility of above-average demand for its natural gas in the coming months. Fair valuations across the board are nice, and the dividend streak shouldn't end any time soon, especially with the company's low payout ratio.

In terms of income consistency, we'd consider both names, but if pressed to choose one, we'd pick National Fuel Gas because it pays a lower percentage of its earnings out as dividends in comparison to Northwest Natural Gas.

Disclosure: none

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The PBS television show, Frontline, made public a video deposition in which hedge fund manager Steven A. Cohen is interviewed concerning the Securities and Exchange Commission’s rules on insider trading. In it, Mr. Cohen described his understanding of US federal law as "very vague." And when asked about Rule 10b5-1 particularly, further explanation was requested as if he was unfamiliar with it.

Lastly, when explained the rule limits the use of non-public information for trading purposes, he added, "That is not the way that is explained to me."

SAC Capital is in the eye of US prosecutors for the practice of insider trading "on a scale without any known precedent in the history of hedge funds." In addition to criminal charges, the hedge fund has paid a fine worth $1.8 billion, setting a high standard for future violators. The question remains on whether the fine is congruent with reported earnings by SAC Capital, taking into account that in 2005 alone Mr. Cohen received $1 billion in compensation.

Mr. Cohen, however, has not been charged by prosecutors in relation to this case but has not escaped the claws of the US Justice Department. The hedge fund is being accused of failure to supervise employees and preventing misconduct. Accusations can be put on solid ground given Mr. Cohen’s lenient interpretation of internal guidelines concerning insider trading. He is very straightforward about this issue when calling company policies concerning insider trading a "manual of guidelines," forgetting they must comply with federal law.

Much disregard for fair trading is shown during the interview, as Mr. Cohen goes to the extent of admitting to have never read insider trading law and relying on counseling to comply with current regulation. In the end, Mr. Cohen is asked whether he would divulge false information, to which the answer was positive.

Illegal insider trading is a known practice on Wall Street, but has been hard for prosecutors to prove it consistently.

This is the first time that a hedge fund was accused and accepted the charges of insider trading, in open violation of federal law. Whether the fine and criminal proceedings will be enough to discourage others from unfair trading is not known, but traders will certainly be more careful when using material not available to the public.

Disclosure: none

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William Leland Edwards‘ fund, Palo Alto Investors, just reported cutting down its entire position in nano-cap company Savient Pharmaceuticals Inc (OTCMKTS:SVNTQ). In its latest 13F, Palo Alto revealed holding over 9.74 million shares of Savient.

Disclosure: none

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Phil Frohlich and Prescott Group Capital Management have been on our radar for some time, especially because of their ‘bullishness’ on China Marine Food Group Ltd (NYSEMKT:CMFO), in which Prescott continues to buy shares over the past couple of weeks. Today, in a new Form 4, Prescott reported buying shares of the company again, raising its position to a total of 6,325,795 shares. The fund purchased 89,739 shares in two transactions, the price amounting to $2.22 apiece.

Disclosure: none

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In a new filing with the SEC, Lei Zhang‘s Beijing-based hedge fund, Hillhouse Capital Management, disclosed adding Qunar Cayman Islands Ltd (NASDAQ:QUNR) to its equity portfolio. The fund holds around 15.86 million class B shares, which represent 29.7% of class. Qunar, the company that operates the Chinese travel site Qunar.com, went public last week. 

Disclosure: none

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Noam Gottesman‘s fund, GLG Partners, has just reported boosting its exposure at Tableau Software Inc (NYSE:DATA). The fund now owns 948,578 shares of class A common stock at Tableau, versus 203,348 shares disclosed in its latest 13F. The new position amasses 5.54% of the company.

Disclosure: none

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