First Home Insurance Company Jacksonville

Low-priced Jacksonville stocks bring big payoff in 2011

By Mark Basch

Speculating on penny stocks isn’t necessarily a sound investment strategy. But as it turned out, the two best performing Jacksonville stocks last year, in terms of percentage gain, were two companies that began 2011 priced below $1 a share.

ParkerVision Inc. and International Baler Corp. are two companies that have been around for a while but carry low stock prices.

ParkerVision was quoted at 46 cents at the beginning of last year and was trading at 83 cents at Christmastime. International Baler rose from 64 cents to $1.15 over the same time span. That’s an 80 percent gain for both companies.

The ParkerVision story is well known by anyone familiar with companies headquartered in Jacksonville. It has been developing wireless radio technology for use in mobile devices and has been talking about several deals in the works with manufacturers for years. But the company recorded no revenue in the first nine months of 2011 and has seen relatively little revenue in its history. And ParkerVision has lost money every year since it was formed in 1989.

International Baler is probably less well known but has produced better results.

The company in Northwest Jacksonville has been around since 1975 and produces balers, machines that compress waste material into bales so they can be shipped easily for disposal or recycling.

It was formerly known as Waste Technology Corp. but in 2009 changed its name to its subsidiary, International Baler.

An Indiana investor who owns several industrial companies, Leland Boren, controls 51 percent of International Baler’s stock.

International Baler had a net loss in fiscal 2009 but rebounded with a profit of $254,298 on sales of $7.6 million in the fiscal year ended Oct. 31, 2010.

It did even better last year, with earnings of $520,259 on sales of $7.8 million in the nine-month period ended July 31.

Financial tips for those considering filing for divorce | Jacksonville ...

With the holidays behind us and the new year begun, some Florida couples may now be considering putting the wheels in motion towards getting a divorce .

While in an ideal world, an amicable divorce settlement would make things less stressful and contentious, often what should be a relatively easy breakup can bring up financial problems for one or both members of the divorcing couple that can last long after the divorce is final.

Here are some commonsense tips offered by Money Talks News on how to protect yourself financially if you will be going through a divorce in the near future:

Close all joint accounts , if possible . This can avoid a situation where an ex-spouse decides to clean out a joint checking or savings account or run up debt on a joint credit card account. A divorce does not automatically cancel joint responsibility for debt or protect you from a joint account holder spending the money down. If your name is on the account, you are financially responsible for the account.

A good divorce lawyer can assist you with transferring the title to your jointly owned home, but make sure that the responsibility for all mortgages is transferred at the same time, if possible. Again, banks may not be interested in releasing you from the mortgage. However, your divorce decree can assign responsibility to pay the mortgage to one divorcing spouse, which gives the other a legal claim if the first spouse fails to pay.

Carefully monitor your credit information . Sometimes banks make it difficult to convert a joint account into a separate one unless you close the account entirely. (This is because they have no incentive to relieve one of you of responsibility.) If it is not possible to separate yourself from accounts that also belong to your ex-spouse, pay careful attention to them.

Understand your insurance needs . Do not put off assessing what your insurance needs will be until after your divorce. Make sure that there is no gap in your health insurance, car insurance, homeowners insurance and other key policies. Don't find out after an accident or unexpected loss that your ex-spouse removed you from his or her policy. If you have children or other dependents, make certain you have enough life insurance to cover them.

Home

Returning to Gilead to care for her dying father, Glory Boughton, the daughter of John Ames's closest friend, is joined by her long-absent brother, with whom ...

The company, a short history of a revolutionary idea

The authors of A Future Perfect provide a close-up look at the history of the joint-stock company and examine its influence on world history, describing the ...

Company

On his first day of training, Stephen Jones, a young recruit, reports to the Zephyr Holding Building, where he finds a company defined by its lack of clarity, a ...

Home, A Memoir of My Early Years

Featuring over fifty personal photos, many never before seen, this is the personal memoir Julie Andrews' audiences have been waiting for.

Insurance for Dummies

Explains how to buy and save on every kind of insurance, including life, health, auto and home insurance, and offers tips on how to get the best coverage for ...