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This is Part 3 of a short series of articles that will compare the risk profiles for the 25 business development companies ("BDCs") recently covered in my "The Good, The Bad, And The Maybe" series. This article focuses on the use of debt for portfolio growth and the impacts to risk and earnings.Previous Risk Profile Articles: Part 1 - Portfolio asset classes and non-accrual rates Part 2 - Volatility ratios When evaluating BDCs I focus on five general criteria: profitability, risk, payout, analyst opinions, and valuation. When assessing risk relative to other BCDs I take into account many factors including: portfolio credit quality, investment asset classes, diversification, non-accrual rates, portfolio yield, fixed/variable rate loans, leverage, volatility ratios, market capitalization, insider ownership and trends, institutional ownership and trends, and management/operational history. I will cover each of these areas as well as the other factors I

InterDigital, Inc. (IDCC) Barclays Global Technology, Media and Telecommunications Conference Call May 23, 2013 4:40 PM ET Executives William Merritt – President and CEO Analysts Adam Carron – Barclays Capital Presentation Adam Carron – Barclays Capital Good afternoon, everybody. Thanks for joining us here for the final presentation of the conference. My name is Adam Carron. I am an associate analyst for the IT, consulting and computer services sector here at Barclays, working for Darrin Peller. And with us this afternoon we have InterDigital Corporation. And from the company we have Bill Merritt and Rich Brezski. And for those of you that don't know, InterDigital is a company that's dedicated to developing and licensing cellular and wireless technology and I am sure that these guys can a much better job explaining that in greater detail than I can. So with that I will let you guys kind of take it

UQM Technologies (UQM) Q4 2013 Earnings Call May 23, 2013 4:30 pm ET Executives Annie Leschin Eric R. Ridenour - Chief Executive Officer, President and Director Donald A. French Donald A. French - Director Analysts Randall Hough George Burmann Presentation Operator Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the UQM Fiscal Year 2013 and Fourth Quarter Earnings Conference Call. Today's speakers on behalf of UQM are President and CEO, Mr. Eric Ridenour and the CFO Don French. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded today. I would now like to turn the conference call over to UQM's Investor Relations officer, Anne Leschin, please go ahead. Annie Leschin Thank you, operator. Before we begin, I'd just like to review the forward-looking statements. This conference call may contain statements that constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act and Section 21E of the

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (GS) Annual Shareholders Meeting Conference Transcript May 23, 2013 11:30 AM ET Executives Lloyd Blankfein - Chairman and CEO Gary Herbert - Governor of Utah Jim Schiro - Director and Chair, Corporate Governance Nominating and Public Responsibilities Committee and Former CEO, Zurich Financial Services Michele Burns - CEO, Retirement Policy Center Sponsored, Marsh & McLennan and Chair, Audit Committee Claes Dahlbäck - Senior Advisor, Investor AB and Foundation Asset Management Bill George - Author and Professor, Harvard Business School and Chair, Public Responsibility Subcommittee Jim Johnson - Chairman, Johnson Capital Partners and Chair, Compensation Committee Lakshmi Mittal - Chairman and CEO, ArcelorMittal Adebayo Ogunlesi - Chairman and Managing Partner, Global Infrastructure Partner and New Chair, Risk Committee Debora Spar - President, Barnard College Mark Tucker - Executive Director, Group CEO and President, AIA Group David Viniar - Former Chief Financial Officer Gary Cohn - President

Market Recap: The market rebounded slightly on Thursday (only to lose gains late) on the back of better unemployment data amd housing starts, and dip buyers showing up after a strong decrease in shares on Wednesday and to start Thursday. Unemployment claims came in at 340K versus 350K+ expectations. New Home Sales came in at 354K versus 325K expectations. Both signs of a stronger economy were welcomed a day after Bernanke spooked the markets with talk of curbing QE. While a curb would hurt the market, signs of a stronger economy underneath are a definite long-term positive that should be heralded over more free money.The Dow Jones (DIA) dropped 12 points while the S&P 500 (SPY) decreased four points. Stocks To Trade: Today, we are looking at a bullish position in WisdomTree Japan Hedged Equity (DXJ) and White Wave (WWAV).The debacle in the Nikkei 225 on Thursday

The Gap (GPS) Q1 2013 Earnings Call May 23, 2013 5:00 pm ET Executives Katrina O'Connell Glenn K. Murphy - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Sabrina L. Simmons - Chief Financial Officer, Principal Accounting Officer and Executive Vice President of Finance Analysts John D. Morris - BMO Capital Markets U.S. Kimberly C. Greenberger - Morgan Stanley, Research Division Matthew McClintock - Barclays Capital, Research Division Oliver Chen - Citigroup Inc, Research Division Janet Kloppenburg Adrienne Tennant - Janney Montgomery Scott LLC, Research Division Irwin Bernard Boruchow - Sterne Agee & Leach Inc., Research Division Lorraine Maikis Hutchinson - BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division Jennifer M. Davis - Lazard Capital Markets LLC, Research Division Randal J. Konik - Jefferies & Company, Inc., Research Division Brian J. Tunick - JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division Presentation Operator Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Amber, and I will be your

Sears Holdings (SHLD) Q1 2013 Earnings Call May 23, 2013 4:30 pm ET Executives William K. Phelan - Senior Vice President of Finance Edward Scott Lampert - Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Finance Committee Robert A. Schriesheim - Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President Analysts Paul Swinand - Morningstar Inc., Research Division Gary Balter - Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division Gregory S. Melich - ISI Group Inc., Research Division Mary Ross Gilbert - Imperial Capital, LLC, Research Division Presentation Operator Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. And welcome to the Sears Holdings Corporation Fiscal 2013 First Quarter Webcast. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, today's conference may be recorded. It's now my pleasure to turn the floor over to Bill Phelan. Sir, the floor is yours. William K. Phelan Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Sears Holdings Earnings

The Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD) Q2 2013 Earnings Call May 23, 2013 3:00 pm ET Executives Rudy J. Sankovic - Senior Vice President of Finance - Wealth Management W. Edmund Clark - Chief Executive Officer, President and Non-Independent Director Colleen M. Johnston - Chief Financial Officer and Group Head of Finance Mark R. Chauvin - Chief Risk Officer and Group Head of Risk Management - Corporate Office Timothy D. Hockey - Group Head of Canadian Banking, Auto Finance & Credit Cards, Chief Executive Officer of Td Canada Trust and President of Td Canada Trust Bharat B. Masrani - Group Head U.S. Personal & Commercial Banking, Chief Executive Officer of America's Most Convenient Bank(R) and President of America's Most Convenient Bank(R) Robert E. Dorrance - Group Head of Wholesale Banking, Chairman of TD Securities, Chief Executive Officer of TD Securities and President of TD Securities Analysts Peter D. Routledge - National Bank

Can BlackBerry’s (NASDAQ:BBRY) Messenger platform woo iPhone users away from Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iMessage service? Similar to iMessage for iOS-powered devices, BlackBerry Messenger is a free messaging service available to BlackBerry device users. Is Apple now a once-in-a-decade buying opportunity? Click here to get your 24-page Ultimate Cheat Sheet to Apple’s Stock now! However, BlackBerry has recently announced that it is untethering its instant messaging service from the BlackBerry ecosystem. Within the next several months, BlackBerry Messenger will be available on Apple’s devices as well as Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android-powered devices. Messenger already has 60 million users that send approximately 10 billion daily messages on its native platform, and its user base will only increase with the planned operating system expansion. On the other hand, the expansion of the messaging service is also seen as a risky move since BlackBerry will essentially be giving away one of its most popular services. It also remains to be seen how the Canada-based phone maker will monetize the expansion of BlackBerry Messenger. Former BlackBerry co-CEO and founder Mike Lazaridis thinks BlackBerry’s expanded Messenger service will do well on other platforms. “BBM [BlackBerry Messenger] is by far the most compelling wireless experience and wireless social networking environment,” said Lazaridis via Bloomberg. Although some analysts worry about BlackBerry’s shrinking service fee revenue, Lazaridis believes that the plans to expand BlackBerry Messenger are a testament to how well the latest BlackBerry 10 operating system is performing. Regarding the decision by CEO Thorsten Heins, Lazaridis states, “He’s speaking to the confidence he has in the platform. Not only is BlackBerry back in a big way with BB10, he’s also showing he can expand that vision to other platforms.” Although BlackBerry Messenger will undoubtedly grow its user base by expanding to Android and iOS-based devices, it remains to be seen how this will ultimately affect the user base of Apple’s own popular iMessage service. NEW! Discover a new stock idea each week for less than the cost of 1 trade. CLICK HERE for your Weekly Stock Cheat Sheets NOW! Here’s how Apple and BlackBerry has traded so far this week. Here’s how Apple traded on Thursday: Follow Nathanael on Twitter (@ArnoldEtan_WSCS) Don’t Miss: Here’s How John McCain Made Tim Cook Laugh. Read the original article from Wall St. Cheat Sheet

Today’s tickers: HD, IMAX & DOV HD - Home Depot – Shares in the home improvement retailer are trading lower on Thursday, off the lowest levels of the session but still down 1.25% at $78.69 as of 11:50 a.m. ET, amid a down day for U.S. stocks. Trading traffic in newly issued weekly options on Home Depot suggests some traders are taking advantage of the dip today and positioning for shares in the name to resume hitting record highs next week. The stock yesterday rallied as much as 3.6% to touch an all-time high of $81.56 after the company reported better-than-expected first-quarter earnings and raised its full-year earnings forecast. Traders preparing for shares in HD to potentially rebound in the near term looked to the May 31 ’13 expiry options contracts, and appear to have purchased calls and sold puts on the stock. Call buyers snapped up roughly 1,000 calls at the May 31 ’13 $77.5 strike for an average premium of $1.27 each, and around 500 lots at the $80 strike at an average premium of $0.28 apiece. These contracts make money at expiration next week as long as shares in Home Depot recover from today’s slight declines. Meanwhile, fresh interest in weekly puts appears to be largely driven by sellers of the contracts. It looks like traders sold around 900 in-the-money puts at the May 31 ’13 $80 strike in the early going for an average premium of $2.09 each. Sellers of the contracts walk away with the full amount of premium at expiration should shares in HD settle above $80.00. Several hundred contracts appear to have been sold at the May 31 ’13 $77.5 and $82.5 strikes as well. IMAX - IMAX Corp – Put options changing hands on the entertainment technology company this morning look for shares in IMAX to potentially head lower during the next four weeks. Shares in the name are down 1.5% in early-afternoon trading to stand at $27.60 as of 12:20 p.m. in New York. The most traded contracts on IMAX…